Calico and Mississippi pink eye are the only peas we planted this year. We had two patches of the pink eyes—one we planted and the other smaller patch was volunteers from last year’s peas.
We’ve been enjoying eating them fresh. They’ve been so good!
Last week I cooked some fresh peas mixed with all the butter and lima beans we grew in the big garden. Matt declared it the best thing he’d ever eaten. I teased him by telling him he says that about a lot of things I cook.
I learned the very simple recipe several years ago when we sung at a homecoming over in Suches, GA. Those were our favorite gigs to play—there’s always nice people and plenty of good food.
There’s always so many things to choose from that my strategy is to get a little helping of every thing and then go back for seconds of what I really love.
One of the dishes I liked best was lima beans and peas. It was simple but so very good. I asked the lady who made it for the recipe.
She said it wasn’t really anything special just lima beans and peas cooked together and that she used a little canola oil but used to use meat for seasoning before her husband was diagnosed with heart disease.
The beans and the peas came from her garden, I’m sure that’s why they tasted so fresh and good.
I’ve cooked the two together often since then and we always enjoy it. Granny liked it too.
The method I use most often to preserve peas for future use is to let them dry completely and then store them in a canning jar sealed tightly. Sometimes I blanch them and then freeze or if I’m in a real hurry I freeze them without blanching.
We’ve enjoyed canning dried beans so much that this year I wanted to try canning our peas.
I followed Miss Lori’s directions. You can see them here. I was worried that some of our peas were on the dry side and hemmed and hawed about how many to put in the jar since the drier ones would swell as they cooked. I should have put less peas in the jars. We had two jars not seal and the others are really full. But I’m still glad we tried canning them. I know we’ll enjoy the ease of opening a jar for a quick supper and next time I’ll know not to fill the jars so full.
Last night’s video: Pea Picking Time in Appalachia || Hunting to Feed My Family.
Tipper
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About the good food at homecomings – you remind me of a saying by a former boss of mine. He’d say “the first two times you get a little of everything. The third time you just get what you liked best.” Sounds reasonable except I heard growing up about ‘your eyes being bigger than your stomach’. And as to peas -seems the best advice is to be circumspect in what one calls them. Like local place names – listen hard to hear what locals say or try to get a local to say it first. If that fails, tack on a “or however y’all say it” and maybe keep the peace that way. I’m teasing of course, but them peas! I swear they’ve got more names than Carter has liver pills! Randy’s adviceis likely best “just call them good”. Lord willing, I’m gonna pull up my last row of “field” peas today, getting ready for winter.
My mother used to use a variation on the old saying about when the shoeless man meets the footless man, that went, “YOU cry because all you have to eat is peas, but there’s a hungry man behind you waiting for you to throw away the pods.”
My paternal grandma and great aunt(on a farm just outside of Columbia, KY)always had a huge garden. I love my memories of them out in it, picking, wearing their cotton sun bonnet and large aprons. The pinto beans they cooked in a large cast iron pot on the wood stove & served with cornbread and sliced tomatoes was a favorite of mine!
My family loves canned peas, and we can a bunch of ’em.
good morning God bless each and every one here today, Heavenly Father in the name of Jesus, please heal the sick, save the lost, comfort the suffering and struggling, make life a little easier, thank you for blessings Lord, thank you for this new day, lead guide and direct us and show us the way , forgive our sin,Lord in Jesus name amen
I have never knew anyone to can peas, we just froze them. Now my favorite is the Mississippi Purple Hull. Two favorite varieties in past years were Hercules and Colossus, but the seed for them are no longer available in my area. I think you may be able to buy small amounts of them online. We I was growing planted peas by the pound, not small packs. We would take the dry pods, put them in a burlap sack, hang them up under a shed and keep them until next year and then beat the sack with a big stick and sift the chaff through our hands, letting the wind blow it away, while the heavier seed would fall on a sheet laid on the ground. In better times I thought about buying some of the small packs and planting them just for seed but now between the deer and my health that will not happen. To me, there is no better eating than these peas, cooked with a slab of side meat, unsweetened cornbread and sweet ice tea. I only want my tea slightly sweetened. Tipper, I think I remember the lima beans and peas you refer to, in my area those peas are called butter peas, not crowder peas like the Mississippi pink eye. I just call a pot of them GOOD! I think there may be a small difference between crowder and some called cow peas but we just considered all of them to be crowder peas.
I tried to proofread my comment before posting it, but when I see my mistakes today, I must have been half blind. I am going to blame my hurting ankle, I have been awake a good while during the night with it hurting.