I recall reading that the lowly black-eyed pea saved many Southerners from starving after the Union army destroyed everything in it's path. They ignored the peas because they were considered rough animal food -- but their nourishment sustained the hungry people and grew to be part of southern cuisine. I love that they are purported to bring good luck and prosperity in the new year because they are so delicious with a little ham (can't find hog jowls anymore) and tasty, super-nourishing collards green as dollar bills.
3
Reading all these delightful comments reminds me of the power of food to evoke wonderful memories and bring people together.
2
I'll be working tomorrow, so fixed up my Goya dried black eyed peas this afternoon, and just finished off a dish (with onions, country ham,carrots, parsley, Pomi chopped tomatoes, bay leaves, paprika, thyme, and cumin) over rice. I figure I will venture out from 2015 into 2016 with good luck in my system.
I'll replenish that good luck with supper after work tomorrow.
Happy New Year to you all.
I'll replenish that good luck with supper after work tomorrow.
Happy New Year to you all.
1
Delighted to read this article and note the enthusiasm for legumes. We should all be eating some every single day, for health, economy and sustainabilit, whether on follows a plant based diet, or cooks 'em up with beautiful cheap cuts of meat.
Give up the fast food, eat more beans. Enjoy the regularity and cardiac benefits of beans, beans, beans!
Give up the fast food, eat more beans. Enjoy the regularity and cardiac benefits of beans, beans, beans!
2
I LOVE peas!! Grew up on peas and corn as the house veges. We weren't big salad eaters. Mostly meat and potatoes, and fresh fish when my uncle "The Prince of Belmar" had a good day in the bay.
And I did not know there was such a mixed variety of them! Now that I'm officially a FL resident as of last year, I'll have to search them out at the local farmers market and better acquaint myself with the local fare.
And I did not know there was such a mixed variety of them! Now that I'm officially a FL resident as of last year, I'll have to search them out at the local farmers market and better acquaint myself with the local fare.
1
As I sit here reading the paper over my New Year's Day lunch of Hoppin' John, I appreciate the little memories. In Savannah most everyone I knew had some version of this meal on this day. Collard greens are fine, and we had plenty of them, but rice was our everyday affair on the coast. Mine is made from fresh green field peas, a good brown rice (though the coastal standard is white rice, often by the fifty-pound sack back in the 1960s), and chopped ham fried up with uncured bacon, for that healthy touch.
One of the more common versions I recall was a twist on our staple "red rice" (rice cooked with a little chopped tomato and onion, and a bit of fresh green or red pepper). Add the peas and the pork and you're all set. Just thinking of it takes me back to the smell of the salt marsh across the river.
One of the more common versions I recall was a twist on our staple "red rice" (rice cooked with a little chopped tomato and onion, and a bit of fresh green or red pepper). Add the peas and the pork and you're all set. Just thinking of it takes me back to the smell of the salt marsh across the river.
5
At long last, respect for the pink-eyed purple hull pea!!! They are the peas I grew up on in south Mississippi in the 50s and 60s. All of my aunts and uncles raised them (along with butter beans) in their gardens. We spent many an afternoon shelling peas on screened-in porches at my relatives' homes. Black-eyed peas get all the press, but pink-eyed purple hulls have all the flavor. I never thought that I would read about them in the New York Times of all places. You Yankees get a few things right!!!
13
Looking for a new "sexy food ritual": Boil some fresh blacked-eyed peas in chicken stock, onions, etc. and serve them as a side-dish, along with a good Pinot Noir (California or Burgundy); it's an earthy match made in heaven. Really amazing and so sophisticated.
3
Thank you, Kim Severson! A nice start to the new year.
3
Sadly, in the southeast the cowpea curculio has become such a problem that many people who don't want to spray their pea patch several times with insecticide have just quit growing southern peas: http://extension.uga.edu/publications/detail.cfm?number=C1038 Hopefully, researchers will come up with a resistant variety or three for the home gardener.
2
When I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Sierra Leone in the early 1980s, a popular street food was a roll about six inches long filled with a spicy cowpea concoction. It was delicious and I ate it every chance I could. I wonder if that variety of bean also came to the US--I once spent a couple months on St. Helena Island in South Carolina but it was the wrong season. It would be interesting to know if one of these varieties of beans is another connection between Sierra Leone and the Sea Island Gullah culture.
The cowpeas in US grocery stores have such a bland taste in comparison. I hope at least some of these varieties of field peas will someday be available throughout the US.
The cowpeas in US grocery stores have such a bland taste in comparison. I hope at least some of these varieties of field peas will someday be available throughout the US.
8
Check out: Pollitzer, William (1999). The Gullah People and their African Heritage. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press.
Bill Pollitzer was a scientist from So Carolina whose hobby was studying Gullah culture, & who documented (with ratios & statistics!) the proportions of various cultural parameters that seemed to have arrived from different areas of the African continent. Good read.
Bill Pollitzer was a scientist from So Carolina whose hobby was studying Gullah culture, & who documented (with ratios & statistics!) the proportions of various cultural parameters that seemed to have arrived from different areas of the African continent. Good read.
5
Crowder peas, field peas, black eyed peas, purple hull peas... my grandparents grew all of them in southwest Arkansas. (And shelly beans!) And peppers to make the hot sauce. But there were turnips in the turnip greens, not peas. 'Dessert' was often cornbread crumbled in buttermilk. Can't go wrong with any of them.
6
Am surprised no one commented that the cornbread pictured was made from yellow not the preferred southern white cornmeal. We had a small food store in Maine years ago and Southerners came from miles around to buy our freshly ground white cornmeal, especially for the New Years Day meal, but anytime really. Only Northerners cook with yellow cornmeal, or so I was told. It was from them we learned to eat blackeyed peas for luck on New Years Day and have not missed for 40 years.
10
It's true even though I do call for "preferably white" cornmeal in the recipe. I find that even here in North Carolina it's getting harder and harder to find white cornmeal, especially in natural food stores. I think some people must think white cornmeal is bleached or more processed. Of course that's not true. In fact, yellow corn was more frequently fed to animals and thus bred for higher yields without regard to flavor. When I was a child, I accidentally bought a bag of yellow cornmeal in the grocery store, and my mother drove all the way back to town and had me exchange it for white.
4
Long ago, in the 1950s, my mother happily interrupted dinner (at noon) for the occasional arrival of the "pea wagon": A mule-drawn flat-bed had arrived with an old lady sitting in the back shelling peas of different varieties. "I've got lady peas, crowder peas, black eyed peas...", which she transferred from her overflowing coffee can in a swoosh into a crumpled paper sack. These unannounced visitations brought a sense of delight and abundance and wonder whenever they occurred.
20
I grew up in Southern California, but my parents were from Oklahoma, and we ate Hoppin' John on New Year's Day. I will prepare mine with big chunks of diced ham, onions, celery, salt, pepper, butter, black-eyed peas and rice because that's the way my mother fixed it, and my daughters will do the same. Some traditions should continue, and even though there appears to be little-to-no connection between Hoppin' John, good fortune and prosperity, I'm not about to risk it.
7
Black-eyed peas and ham are nothing but an excuse for eating cornbread with butter and home made peach preserves.
9
OMG, I've been eyeing these legumes for years. I still recall a bag of Anson Mills peas that were past prime (my error entirely). I said to myself, let me see if I can salvage them so I cooked them up and they turned out delicious. I can't even imagine how wonderful these delectables are when they are fresh. Let's see if I can muster up the energy to do a pot of black eyed peas for hoppin' john....not too eager to get back in the kitchen.
3
And I shall join so many of my fellow commenters here by announcing my New Year's food fest will include black-eyes and cornbread to further celebrate my 74th birthday. My Mississippi mother and her mother continued the tradition, even after relocating to West Texas; my English father never quite understood their passion. The ladies preferred turnip greens as they're sweeter than collards; both are wonderfully nutritious. My mother cooked her black-eyes with onion and a rasher or two of bacon. We shall add pork belly to ours. And from my Denver and New Mexico influences, we shall enjoy Pozole. And our cornbread, made with buttermilk, of course, will be peppered with diced jalapenos. Beef and chicken tamales round out our menu. If only I had my mother's recipe for Divinity, the holiday would be perfect.
9
After reading this article I went looking online for some interesting names for various field peas. I found these, among many others, at rareseeds. Atchafalaya Swamp pea, Coat and Jacket, Hog Brains, and Monkey Tail.
2
What good memroies this article brings to me. My favorite is Conch Pease which were not mentioned. We had them in Central Florida, small litgh green peas. They were only available at Simmons Feed Store in Leesburg, FL last I heard.
5
I would love to know more about conch peas. In our researches for our southern food film, "At the Common Table" mentioned in this article, we met a lovely 93 year old lady in Montgomery Alabama who said the "conch" was her favorite. They are completely unknown to me. We must track some down and try them!
2
Nice article. I was just in GA for Thanksgiving and mentioned that here in Italy we eat lentils on New Year's Eve. My son and his wife said there it was black eyed peas. Same thing. Old tradition. Good luck and good fortune for the new year.
8
On New Year's Day we eat greens for folding money and black eyed peas for coins in the coming year. And because we love them.
13
Peas for peace; rice for riches; hog jowls for happiness. Or, so my late mother used to say. Fortunately, she substituted ham for hog jowls!
6
My local grocery store was sold out of all varieties of field peas (feesh, dried, frozen and even canned) on December 31, and I am convinced that 2015 was such a horrible year because I failed to eat these auspicious legumes on January 1. I stocked up early this year.
13
No, no, no - it is pickled herring on New Year's Eve and fresh kielbasa for breakfast on New Year's Day. Or is that only for people from Milwaukee?
5
this is what Southern folks do, it's their tradition, what you refer to is Eastern European tradition
2
I realize that, but every year at this time, the Southern tradition seems to be the only one written about. We have traditions "Up North" too.
4
Thank you for including a recipe for cornbread that does not include sugar!
9
I've been looking for a great gluten-free cornbread recipe. Thanks so much.
The red peas she mentions are available online from Anson Mills.
3
Visiting Tybee Island, GA in June we found fresh zip locked field peas at a C store for a fuel stop. Bought several pounds and loved them. Fresh peas are exceptionally delicious on their own and don't really require much more than salt, pepper and water to boil. We returned to buy more before our visit ended. Wish the fresh peas were available this far North. Like fresh coastal shrimp, it is a regional delicacy.
9
My Father called Black Eyed Peas "Mississippi Lifesavers". I do not know, but speculate that they were at times a large portion of the diet of Southern Sharecroppers- black and white alike.
Despite Southern Heritage, residing in the South and a love of good peas, I have never partaken of the New Year's tradition- preferring more mainstream grub with the football festival each New Year's Day.
Fortunately, I have quite a stockpile of locally grown peas courtesy of a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) that I subscribe to. Many readers can probably avoid the bland grocery store peas by purchasing from a CSA- you will thank me if you join and enjoy the flavor of fresh, local produce. It is good for the earth, good for your local economy, good for you and good for the meals you serve.
To find CSAs near you here is a link to a non-profit directory by Local Harvest. They have a database of over 30,000 CSAs, farmers markets and other local sources of good food.
http://www.localharvest.org/csa/
Despite Southern Heritage, residing in the South and a love of good peas, I have never partaken of the New Year's tradition- preferring more mainstream grub with the football festival each New Year's Day.
Fortunately, I have quite a stockpile of locally grown peas courtesy of a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) that I subscribe to. Many readers can probably avoid the bland grocery store peas by purchasing from a CSA- you will thank me if you join and enjoy the flavor of fresh, local produce. It is good for the earth, good for your local economy, good for you and good for the meals you serve.
To find CSAs near you here is a link to a non-profit directory by Local Harvest. They have a database of over 30,000 CSAs, farmers markets and other local sources of good food.
http://www.localharvest.org/csa/
12
"Mississippi Lifesavers." Love that. Saw a wonderful quote on Facebook this summer --"My daddy said he always took his hat off when he passed a patch of peas because they had saved his life more than once."
7
I would love to know where one can get these prized field peas. They are not sold in stores in the Northeast as far as I can tell and I've yet to find a good mail order source other than Anson Mills for the sea island peas.
1
You can order seeds and grow your own next year.
Another option is to check your local Farmer's Markets and local CSA's.
Another option is to check your local Farmer's Markets and local CSA's.
Sea island reds are rare, so it will probably be difficult to find them. We need more folks like Anson Mills making these older and scarcer pea varieties available.
1
There are some good sources mentioned elsewhere on this thread. Camellia brand dried field peas are available through their website, Amazon , etc. Amazon also carries Trappeys and other brands of canned field peas that are at least as good as canned black beans, etc. Check any Caribbean, African, Indian, Hispanic, Asian or African-American markets near you. Many have several varieties dried or frozen labelled as cowpeas, field peas, or crowder peas.
1
Have to say, I think I like blackeyed peas, collards, and cornbread better than turkey and all that other stuff. Can't wait until New Year's Day for our annual feast.
4
Born and raised in Montgomery, Alabsma, until relocated to North Carolina, I have such fond memories of shopping at the farmers market with my mother who knew her peas! Pink-eyes, black-eyes, crowders, purple hulls, brown rounds, and - my favorite of all - lady peas. There was such a variety proudly provided by the local farmers with clearly distinguishing characteristics of taste, consistency, size, color. It does my heart good to know there are pea groupies out there who are preserving and appreciating these little culinary wonders. Loved this article--thanks.
16
Blackeyed beans called lobia is a popular bean dish in Indian cuisine. YouTube has a number of recipes for LOBIA. I am sure all the other bean varieties mentioned in the article can be substituted for the lobia. It can be eaten with any flat bread, roti or pita or with rice.
2
How interesting, the Hebrew name for black-eyed peas is "lubia"
5
When researching a talk on field peas/black eyed peas years ago, the earliest mention of peas being associated with good luck in the New Year was Egyptian Jews eating black eyed peas on Rosh Hashanah for prosperity in 200 AD.
2
Field peas truly are a crop everyone should plant just to give it a try. As a transposed southerner now in NE Ohio, guess who's gonna see how well okra and purple hulls do.
Wish me luck!
Wish me luck!
17
They grow in Wisconsin so you should have no problem in Ohio.
1
Great article. Where can I find those peas to plant next summer?
Try Southern Exposure Seed Exchange and Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds for seeds.
2
My mother was from Arkansas. I've eaten black eyed peas and cornbread on New Years my entire 72 years. No greens in them, though.
Now that it's just me, I have reverted to canned black eyed peas which I doctor up - still pretty darned good with cornbread with lots of butter and honey on it!
When I was 15, I went to Houston over Christmas break. On New Years Eve, my "boyfriend" took me to a drive-in movie. At midnight, an announcement came on that there were free cups of black eyed peas available at the concession stand. I've never forgotten that!
Now that it's just me, I have reverted to canned black eyed peas which I doctor up - still pretty darned good with cornbread with lots of butter and honey on it!
When I was 15, I went to Houston over Christmas break. On New Years Eve, my "boyfriend" took me to a drive-in movie. At midnight, an announcement came on that there were free cups of black eyed peas available at the concession stand. I've never forgotten that!
29
India, I am with you! I have had them each of my 64 January firsts. In my hometown of North Little Rock, Ark., there was a chain restaurant called The Black-eyed Pea. Free cup of them with each meal. My grandparents in Louisiana called them purple hull peas and crowder peas. Now that there's just me, like you, I have my can of Goya peas in the pantry and frozen collard greens in the "ice box." Have a lucky New Year!
9
Black eyed peas at a drive-in theater sounds ominous. I don't care what time of year it is.
2
Sounds like a wonderful tradition. And they might go along with ours, the New Years Day tamales.
7
My fantasy -- alas, so far never realized -- is to taste a mixture of ALL the edible peas and ALL the edible beans. Without necessarily any meat added. What are my chances?
1
I recommend a copy of the Burpee seed catalogue and a good patch of land.
2
There are over 7000 varieties of cowpeas or field peas on the planet, so it could be a challenge.
1
where in TX, please? I love peas and all legumes.
It's a delicious tradition, and one we'll be keeping again this year. Bring on the Hoppin' John (with hot sauce)!
7
My mother grew up in Texas and I have had black eyed peas every New Years Day of my life (I'm 60), and have made sure that my children always had at least a bite. :) Mom just served plain black eyed peas, which I didn't care for, but as an adult, I discovered hoppin' John and have never looked back. I'm afraid I mostly use canned black eyed peas or (sometimes) dried. I'd be interested in the varieties mentioned in the article, but have certainly never seen them here in southern California.
2