If you were born eating southern peas then you must be from the south. Not only was I not born in the south, the only peas or beans I ever ate growing up were made Cuban style. Since moving to the south I have fully embraced every kind of southern food, though I still have not eaten the most popular kind, black eyed peas (any good family recipes you want to share?)
Luck would have it that last Saturday on my morning farmers market run, my favorite farmer hands me a bag and tells me that I have to buy it. I look inside and I see beans or peas in very long pods. I give her the “what is this” look and she tells me they are zipper cream peas and she saved a half bushel for me. Not wanting to mess with my favorite farmer I say yes maam and hand her some money.
So I start doing some internet research and I find out two things. 1. Southerners really love their peas, zipper peas included. 2. Southerners are not into putting their recipes on the net. 3. They are called zipper cream peas because they are easy to open and they make very creamy soup (so that was three but I couldn’t leave the last one out).
If you think you can’t grow anything in the summer, here is your crop. Southern peas love the heat and will give you quite a lot for your effort.
My children love doing this type of work with me.
As we were sitting in the kitchen shelling peas, I thought to myself how someday I will probably not remember eating these peas but I would remember all of us sitting peeling open the pods, the baby ripping them in three and throwing them in the pot with all the peas still inside.
I did go through the empty pods afterwards and found about another cup full of peas that had gotten thrown in the bowl destined for the compost. I ended up with enough peas to make three or four batches of southern peas.
I can’t wait to see how these taste. Check in tomorrow for the recipe.
