Saturday, January 13, 2024
Please Pass the Peas Louise
Dear Friends,
Considering I’m nearly two weeks late with this e-mail makes me thankful one of my New Year resolutions was not about promptness.
Donna and I dutifully made our New Year dinner with black eyed peas and collard greens. Before tying up with Donna about ten years ago, I had never heard of that tradition, let alone practiced it. It’s definitely a Texas tradition and apparently a fully southern tradition. I sent a text my brother-in-law who lives in South Carolina to see if he was familiar with this tradition and practiced it. He replied about being totally familiar with it, but didn’t add to whether he practiced it or not. Donna and I do every year.
The black eyed peas came originally from west Africa and were imported to the US as a result of the slave trade. According to a Google article, they “have been a Southern staple for more than three centuries. As for collard greens, they're green like money and will ensure you a financially prosperous new year.”
I didn’t see it in this Google article, but Donna told me much of the origin was left from the Civil War. The Union soldiers came tromping all through the south, destroying many of the agricultural products. However, black eyed peas were exceptionally easy to grow and were used as farm animal feed. Hogs were a prevalent livestock, so they kept the black eyed peas in consistent production. Collard greens were likewise easy to grow, so the New Year meals of these things were easy to come by.
For meat with this meal, some of the traditional meat related to pork was pretty disgusting. But what Donna and I did this year was cook boneless chicken breasts wrapped in bacon, which was really good. And of course we put some whole bacon strips in the beans while we crock pot cooked them.
Black eyed peas are a variety of cow pea, and they are actually beans, not peas. Alright, looking forward to it again next year! As you know, Donna and I live here, so we haven’t taken any sort of vacation that would close the shop, like many other quilt shops do. Sunday and New Year Day, we closed and slept in, but we are generally open six days a week including Monday. Visiting us and shopping with us is always a great way to spend your Mondays, because otherwise it’s hard to find a quilt shop that is open Monday.
Chip
