‘Sexiest Collard Farmer’ contest sows drama as competitors wilt under new, strict photo considerations

They’re feeling a little hot under the collard.

Come-hither cultivators vying for the title of North Carolina’s “sexiest collard farmer” are wilting with disappointment because they got down and dirty entering steamy pictures — only to be told they should have put some dressing on that salad.

“I’m a little disappointed that this year they did not post my picture,” said farmer and defending champion Lee Berry, referring to the contest organizer’s Facebook page.

Berry, 54, submitted a photo of himself wearing what he thought any true sex symbol of collard greenery should wear – nothing but collard greens themselves – and was sure he would clinch the crown again.

But the competition’s organizer – who holds voting for the contest on his Facebook page, “The State You’re In” – said he feared Berry’s photo might get flagged by Facebook’s censors and bring the entire contest crashing down.

“You don’t want to lose your account for posting nudity or things like that,” said the organizer, who asked to remain unnamed, to the Telegraph.

“There’s three photos that I didn’t even want to post on social media,” he added.

Though Berry’s photo remains in the running, rather than being featured at the top of the page along with more than 20 other competitors he was asked to post his photo in the comments below the vote.

Since the winner is determined by the photo that get the most “likes,” Berry thinks his chances of reclaiming the crown are seriously limited by his photo’s reduced exposure.

“I’m not whining and b—hing and griping, but I just, I would have loved to have known beforehand that that wasn’t going to be displayed,” he said.

And Berry isn’t the only entrant with a leaf to pick.

David Correll, 50, went all out to take down Berry this year and stripped down for a candle-lit photoshoot in a bathtub full of collard greens.

But his photo was bumped into the comments section, too, over fears it could be flagged by Facebook — leaving him somewhat baffled by the decision.

“My picture showed a lot less skin than a lot of pictures you can find on Facebook, so I’m not really sure why they decided to censor it a little bit, but that’s OK,” he said.

Facebook’s community standards bar sexually explicit or suggestive photos and specifically name “visible  genitalia” or sex acts as being banned — none of which Berry, Correll or anybody in the running submitted.

But the organizer said he didn’t want to run the risk and plans to amend the entry rules for next year’s competition to keep things more deliberately PG.

“I think next year we’re going to make it where it’s a little more family friendly,” he said.

With voting due to close by Tuesday, the current favorite to take home the 2024 crown is Patrick Brown, of Brown Family Farms, whose photo of himself looking cool-eyed into the camera alongside a green bushel has garnered a commanding lead of more than 3,500 votes.

A website — http://www.CollardsOnly.com — has been set up to help organize the competition, which will turn the entrants’ photos into a calendar and raise funds to donate to Hurricane Helene victims.

Even though the crown may elude Berry and Correll this year, both know it’s all about fun at the end of the day.

“It’s all for fun, you know, just for laughs, and I’ve had a lot of phone calls from friends and some of my customers that got a real kick out of it, so that’s the main reason to do it, just to have a little fun,” Correll said.