Peas and Greens and a Prosperous New Year

Happy New Year, all! 2011 is here and it started off well because once again this year I honored a New Year's Day tradition of serving black-eyed peas and collard greens. How did this Northern girl come to make this traditional Southern dish? I may be Michigan born and raised, but I've got the South in my blood. Rumor has it there was a Ballance on the Mayflower (more research to be done on this later, but apparently it was in National Geographic... a dream come true, my name in a NatGeo!). Once off the ship, my kin decided that Virginia looked like a nice place to settle. Now, I'm not up on much of Ballance genealogy, but I do know that my grandfather's family owned much of Princess Ann County, Virginia. I'm not especially proud to relay that we owned plantations and slaves, but it's part of my history and I own it, for better or worse. And seeing as how my father was born in Virginia (even though he only lived there a few short years) I had the Southern influences growing up - most of them related to food! Spoon bread (with lots of butter), red eye gravy (made with coffee of all things), country ham (salty, salty), biscuits and cream (heavenly), chitlins (not a fan), collard greens (cooked with bacon and eaten with a dash of vinegar - again, not a fan), fried catfish (or any fish for that matter), and sweet tea (not the same as adding sugar to iced tea.) Sunday mornings we'd make big "country" breakfasts and visiting grandma Ballance always meant eating some Southern specialty.

So really it's no surprise that I continue in the Southern eating tradition by making black-eyed peas and collard greens on New Year's Day. Dad always said we ate it for good luck, but it wasn't until recently that I wanted to know how and why such a tradition was started. My research turned up only one fact: that no one really knows, but there are plenty of theories. Most Southerners will trace it back to African-American slave traditions. Whether they cooked the peas and greens because that's what was available and cheap or because the peas are said to resemble coins and the greens to resemble cash and bring money in the new year is uncertain. Some have traced the tradition back even further to Jewish settlers in Georgia in the 1700s.

Originally made with ham hocks or "jowls", I never cared much for the traditionally prepared black-eyed peas and collards so the past couple of years I've embarked on the hunt for my favorite way to prepare the New Year's Day meal. Steering away from any pork influence, I sought a dish instead flavored with garlic and spices. Spicy and savory was my goal for this "money" dish and this year I hit the jackpot. I cheated a little and bought canned black-eyed peas but went for fresh collards, onion and garlic sauteed in olive oil and spices. Added a dash (or ten) of hot sauce and voila! Prosperity was served...


With our tissues handy and our sinuses cleared, we feasted with hopes of ingesting a year's worth of luck and prosperity. But don't worry if you missed the black-eyed pea and collard green boat this year because I made enough to pass along the good wishes to all my friends and family. Besides, you could always come over next year. :-)