It was always tradition while growing up for Mom to make black-eye peas and collard greens on New Year’s Day. She told me it was a southern thing and was supposed to give a person good luck and prosperity for the coming year.
I did some research on this and found the following information in a 12/31/2013 “Lubbock Avalanche-Journal” newspaper article written by Ellen Peffley. Ms. Peffley’s words pretty much sum up other articles I read on the same subject.
“Of Southern traditions, black-eye peas on New Year’s Day ranks right on top. Folklore tells that this tradition dates back to the Civil War when black-eye peas were called field peas and were considered to be food for animals.
When Sherman’s troops overtook and raided the food supplies of the Confederate South, Union soldiers regarded them as animal feed and left them behind in the fields. The Confederates, however, survived by eating this crop and considered themselves lucky to have had them and, so, the peas became symbolic of luck. Good luck to be gained by eating black-eye peas with greens, such as collards, comes from the symbols of peas as coins and greens as paper money.”
When we lived in Alabama, the black-eye peas Mom cooked were fresh from a vine, with collard greens recently harvested from Grandma’s garden. After moving to Texas, it was harder to find fresh collard greens so she switched to using turnip greens. Mother tossed in a few slices of bacon for flavor and they were quite tasty made this way. On occasion, our black-eye peas were of the frozen variety.
After our family relocated to Alaska—we’d have frozen or canned peas with canned collard or turnip greens. The fresh greens available in Anchorage grocery stores back then was not on the same fresh level as Alabama or Texas.
Sometimes, it appeared the opposite of rigor mortis had set in on their long trip north. Dollar conscious produce managers attempted to revive greens by drowning them in water. The word I’m looking for here is “rotten” and I’m not talking Johnny.
My wife followed through on this tradition and always uses canned for both entities these days. This year, she one-upped things by going with Sylvia’s Southern Style Black-Eye Peas, and Sylvia’s Turkey Flavor Collard Greens ordered online from Wal-Mart. These are supposed to have some added spices for that special southern flavor.
The late Sylvia Woods was a restaurant owner in Harlem, New York, and is still considered the Queen of Soul Food. She hailed from the south before moving east. This family continues to operate the business, having branched off into canned goods as well.
At one time there was a soul food eatery in Fairview, Alaska, called the Blue Bird Café. They served the best “fresh” soul food of any southern style restaurant I’ve ever visited. Unfortunately, it closed down many years ago as the building it was located in was condemned. I’m guessing it was on the same level as Sylvia’s where taste is concerned.
Unable to travel to Harlem for New Years and personally visit Sylvia’s Restaurant, those two 15-ounce cans on the top shelf in our pantry will have to satisfy any soul food craving for now, at least I thought they would.
Before finishing this story, I took a quick look to see what went into making both products, being extremely shocked at the first one—monosodium glutamate (MSG). The last time I ate anything having monosodium glutamate, my heart started pounding like drums in “Little Drummer Boy” (pah rumpa pum pum). To be fair, Sylvia’s isn’t the only brand of canned black-eye peas and collards having MSG in them.
I’ve stayed away from the flavor enhancer since then not wanting a self-inflicted heart attack. Dad had the same problem when he was alive. After eating a salad with MSG he was rushed to the hospital with heart palpitations.
There’s a restaurant here in Lake Havasu City that claims to not use MSG, but whenever I eat certain items from there my blood pressure goes off the chart. I heard through the grapevine by a former employee, that several of their entrees do contain monosodium glutamate.
Some of the other questionable ingredients in Sylvia’s collard greens and black-eye peas are: corn gluten, sodium phosphate, sodium diacetate, silicon dioxide, sodium inosinate, and smoked pork fat. The corn gluten and smoked pork fat seem healthy enough but not the rest. Even more amazing is a label on front claiming heart healthy; definitely not mine with all that MSG.
It appears this year might be the first that I don’t partake of Mom’s traditional New Year’s Day dishes, unless we go to frozen instead of cans. I’m not a believer in the good luck and prosperity part anyway. It seems more of an old wives’ tale than anything.
By declining to eat canned black-eye peas and collard greens cooked via Sylvia’s specially seasoned way, it appears I’ll “stay out of the box” come New Year’s Day. To me, that’s something especially worthy of celebrating.
Happy New Years!
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