Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Cowpeas



Varieties of cowpeas
some are used 'fresh' and some are eaten dry


From left to right: black eyed peas, Mississippi silver brown crowder, pink eye purple hulled peas, mayflower beans

I have been doing some detailed research into different kinds of 'southern peas', also known as field peas or iron peas or clay peas. These are varieties of peas that are used primarily to make dry goods, although some of them can be eaten fresh like the common green peas or sugar snap types. They tend to be less sugary and more 'meaty' or like dry beans in flavor. It is one of those kinds of foods that are good to know how to grow, keep and propagate for the future. It is interesting to me because there are so many kinds of cowpeas, from different times in our history, and all of them have very interesting stories.



Esme said she had to help mama sort seeds



She actually mixed them up more and dropped a lot
on the floor.. but it is the thought that counts!



Cow pea 'bandit'
I asked her to hold the bags up, and she did this.

This last picture really shows how much she has been growing!




The same shirt when I made it last September



Equinox post Animal top shirt
It was much more roomy on her back then!


It is time to make another round! I got a half yard of something in the mail the other day, all the way from Hong Kong. Daddy and Grandpa were wondering why Mama would order something from that far away for something this small.... well... I explained it to Daddy like his description that he could buy all the canned apples from the store they had, and none of them would be as good as a batch he made himself. Further than that, if the produce was from their own garden and nobody else had anything like it at all... it would be even more of an experience eating whatever was made from it. The fabric from this shirt pictured was also from Japan... and I fretted over how to use it well - and I do believe this shirt was the best choice for it. When I use something that special it both spurs me to MAKE the item, and further to continue to use that item over and over with a 'history' of how it got to be what it is. In a way, my interest in heirloom beans and peas also works into that keyhole in my mind - it connects us to something else, is useful and continues to create memories into the future as well.

LATER: Esme has been so cranky the past day or so, off and on - and she is asking for and drinking more milk again, and then crashing for an uncustomary nap. So, my deduction is a growth spurt. I'm working on her 'civility' as she is resorting to 'gimme this' and 'go away', screeching and pushing and shoving with her crankiness... not the way to act. I threatened to remove her from Grandma's house for one of her spats... and she did get better after that talking to. Now that she is napping, I went to check on the garden. There were three small pattypan squashes today that had turned bright white (time to pick), a handful of green beans and a few cucumbers. There were several zucchini, but only picked two as the others may get a little larger. I planted the pink eye purple hulled peas in a little square in the back of the garden. If they turn out to need some support fencing I can add a small stretch later. The beans under the big pole fence are starting to poke their heads up, but not the peas yet or the wax beans.

Notes: boiled cucumber tastes like asparagus to me. the notes I was seeing said that plain solid brown whipporwhill cowpeas were very hard to come by for this year 2011... some crop failures. They are one of the old varieties that might be what Grandma remembers from her childhood. The brown speckled whipporwhills are coming in the mail soon I hope. They are a variant that supposedly tastes very similar and were a family tradition in Tennessee. Now I should kick myself to go sew a shirt for Esme!


saw this dress pattern
and would like to make it for Esme


I made her a green and polka-dotted sleeveless shirt one size bigger than the other one. It is the same fabric in her bird pants. It is a little wide in the neck... but it does fit and doesn't slip around too much. Loose is better than tight in hot weather and bigger is always something to grow in while too small is never good! So, it is a win. I might tighten the front just a tiny bit when I use the Hong Kong fabric for the next one.

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