In case you wondered... Black-Eyed Peas and Long-Cooked Greens: From the Talmud to the Civil War And Beyond 20141210-new-years-eve-peas-samara-linnell.jpg When you find a coin—any coin—that looks like a black-eyed pea, please call me. Until then, lets go back at least 1,500 years to trace the good-luck associations of this healthy, historically significant little bean (and yes, botanically speaking, they are beans, not peas.) In the United States, few foods are more connected with African-Americans and with the South, wrote Jessica B. Harris, a scholar of the foodways of the African diaspora, in the New York Times. Without the black-eyed pea, which journeyed from Africa to the New World, it just isnt New Years—at least not a lucky one. Two physical properties of dried black-eyed peas (much more likely available in the depths of winter than freshly shelled ones) symbolize good things to come: the promise of germination when planted, and increasing significantly in size when cooked. But black-eyed peas also have a little-known ancient history as a good-luck tradition that started not in Africa, but with a list of five foods mentioned in the Jewish Talmud to eat on Rosh Hashanah (the new year) to ensure good fortune. Black-eyed peas are not on this list, but fenugreek seeds are, explains historian Gil Marks in The Encyclopedia of Jewish Food. The Talmud refers to fenugreek seeds as rubia, which sounds like yirbu, meaning to increase. Sephardim confused that with lubia, the word for black-eyed peas, and they began incorporating black-eyed peas into their new years good-luck spread. Some sources say that Sephardic Jewish colonists introduced this custom to the American South (Jews settled in Georgia as early as 1733). 20141210-new-years-eve-greens-peas-rice-samara-linnell.jpg Black-eyed peas, which were first domesticated in Africa 5,000 years ago, were thought to have made their initial arrival in North America though slave ships, predating the arrival of Jews in the colonies. And Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, is usually celebrated in September. So it seems unlikely that the Talmud alone was the spark of the black-eyed peas associations with fortune in the South, especially when the food became so prominent in the diets of slaves—and, eventually, their masters. After the Civil War, hungry Union soldiers ate up Southern crops, but they left behind black-eyed peas, which they considered livestock feed; the hearty legumes provided much-needed sustenance during the Reconstruction for Southerners of all classes. Peas for pennies, greens for dollars, and cornbread for gold, goes an old Southern saying. Its worthy of note that all three were staples of hard-working households that were not flush with income. Collards, turnip, mustard are all common braising greens of the South, though cabbage can make a cameo, too. Cheap, plentiful, and easy to grow, collards in particular are flat, like paper currency, and thus favored. Paired with the rice and black-eyed peas of the iconic dish Hoppin John, greens make a nutritionally complete meal that balances color, texture, and flavor. Put on the Bud Powell Trios 1953 recording of Collard Greens and Black-Eyes Peas while supping on just that, and your year is already off to a fantastic start. Quite likely a hunk of cured pork flavors your beans or greens, raising your good luck up another notch.
Posted on: Wed, 31 Dec 2014 18:41:35 +0000