peas

PurpleHull Peas are close cousins to the more familiar, but less tasty, black-eyed peas.

They are members of the "cow pea" or "southern pea" family, just as are black-eyed peas and crowder peas.

And, like so many things in our world, they have a far more interesting history than one would suspect.

Botanists believe the cow pea originated in Africa, specifically in an area which is now the country of Niger.

The purple hull pea is actually a type of black-eyed pea (also known as southern peas or cow peas). The purple hull pea is so named because of the purplish hue that the pods have when they are growing on the plant. Like other black-eyed peas, the purple hull pea has a small purple eye in the center of the pea where it connects to the pod. Growing purple hull peas is easy and fast. Within 60 to 70 days, peas will be ready for harvest

 

Scotty and Mary, our friends that took us to the Amish Produce Auction, purchased to huge boxes of this kind of  pea.  So they gave us a couple of "messes" (meals) of them.  So I shelled some while watching the outdoor movie at the lake last night.  I finished them this morning.  It is really very relaxing.  I can just see sitting on the front porch, watching the neighbors going by, saying hi, and shelling my peas.  My Daddy grew this kind of pea. 

  When you are shelling your fingers get stained lightly with the purple color of the shell.  Looking at them in the boxes at the auction I imagined the outside shells being hard, but they are really soft and pliable.   Upon looking them up on the internet one can make a jelly from the shells.  They say it has a grape flavor.  I say two things about this, really grape from pea shells.  Is that like alligator tastes like chicken. LOL The second thing, if it tastes like grape no thank you I hate grape jelly.  

  

 

The peas have a creamy flavor and texture.  I really like black-eyed peas, but these are even better!! You can see the purple eyes talked about before. 

 
This is them on the bush.

While out in Amish country we stopped at a home to purchase homemade soap, lavender wow so nice. While there we saw this black walnut hull remover.  The black walnut has an extremely hard outer shell, a shell before the shell if you will.   This is the machine the crushes and removes that outer shell and the pic below is the pile of hulls when all is done.  This farmer rents his operation out to others in the area. 

Today we spent picking up and packing our stuff.  We are on the road again Monday.  Rain is predicted for tomorrow and it is so much nicer to pack in the dry.  We have a little more to do tomorrow then we will be done.  The trip Monday is short so we are feeling good about the amount left to pack up.  We went over to Scotty and Mary's rig and had a biscuit with  Muscadine grape.  Mary took the grape and squeezed out the center and cooked it into the most delicious sauce I have ever had.  Then she took the skins of the grape and cooked them in a biscuit.  You eat the biscuit in a pool of the sauce.  The Muscadine grape has the most wonderful distinct flavor.  This too is a grape that my Grandpa Simpson grew.