Tuesday, August 8, 2017

Summertime Peas

From Southern Lady:
Here in Alabama in the heat of June and July, the song “Summertime” from the folk opera Porgy and Bess sometimes drifts through my mind. “Summertime, and the livin’ is easy . . . ”     
But in midsummer in the Deep South, the livin’ is not so easy, especially if you have coded in your DNA that you must put up enough fresh peas to last you through the winter. I am not talking about English peas that you may just as well buy in a small silver can or in a loose bag in the frozen section of your grocery store. I am talking about the wonderful variety of peas available down South. A few of my favorites are:
  • Pink eyes, sometimes called purple hulls because purple is the color of the hulls.
  • Crowders, which are grayish-brown. In both taste and color, they remind my brother of boiled peanuts. (My computer is clearly not Southern—it keeps underlining crowders to tell me it’s not a word.)
  • Zipper peas, which are technically a “white crowder” although these peas are actually light green in color. I’m told they get their name from the fact you can open them like a zipper and soon have a bowlful.
  • Little lady peas, also called white acre peas—but not by me ever since I saw the sparkle in my granddaughter’s eyes when I offered her some “little lady” peas, and she accepted with such delight, saying, “I’m a little lady.”
(Read more.)
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