Zipper Creams and Scuppernongs
Experts will tell you it is healthier to eat with the seasons. Even though I find it hard to disagree, there is something about calling up Spring and Summer by pulling out a bag or jar of something we've preserved from the overly plentiful sacks of produce that made its way from farm stands in Kentucky to our kitchen in Tennessee. There's the satisfaction of seeing our pantry storage fill with good things. There is the security of knowing who grew most of what we'll eat. We saw where it came from. This is not a smug assurance that God likes me better or anything like that. It's just an overall feeling of being blessed.
There are the oh, so predictable sentiments expressed by the farm stand workers, my mother, and now even me. Someone always says, "You've got your work cut out for you!" Yes, I do. It's work I enjoy. Shelling peas is good thinking time. I write stories in my head, plan maker's projects and think of what I'd like to paint or draw next. The other sentiment is one I have inherited from my maternal grandmother: You'll be glad to have this food come winter!" I say it now when my mother rolls her eyes at the bulging t-shirt bags of Purple-Hull Peas and Zipper Creams I heft to the register. She knows where I learned that saying and she will agree with me when I remind her.
They are as much a delight to the senses in their raw state as when they are served up as a warm bowl of creamy goodness with greens and cornbread. Some varieties are called Cow Peas or Crowder Peas and the outer pods can be light green, pale yellow, white, or in the case of my favorite kind, white with magenta specks. The peas are large, firm, and slightly waxy feeling. As is the case with my lovely Ztpper Creams, the firm pods give with a satisfying crack when they are shelled. This is the easy part. The bowls of shelled peas fill quickly and they are then blanched and shocked, a process where they are boiled for a couple of minutes and then submerged in ice water to keep them from cooking. After that, they are frozen, set to wait for shorter days and good, easy suppers.
I haven't mentioned working the Purple-Hulls yet. For those of you unfamiliar with them, they resemble Black-Eyed Peas. The difference is, they are a deeper green and purple at the plumula (the "eye" of the pea.) In West Texas, where I first ate them, they are picked earlier and the shelled peas are mixed with immature pods that are snapped like green beans. The same peas here in Tennessee and Kentucky are allowed to grow until the peas are considerably bigger and drier. The shells don't give in the same way and there are the inevitable runaway legumes all over the kitchen after the shelling part is done.
Purple-Hulls can be prepared like any other field pea. Like Black-Eyed Peas, they make great "caviar" when mixed with salsa and served cold as a side for Tex-Mex or as a taco filling. This is the pea to add to vegetable soup in Winter or as the protein half of Hopping John. Another delicious preparation for them is as a part of a plate with greens and the pot-liquor over cornbread. They are much harder to work then the blousy beauties, the big girls in their pretty, easily doffed pods. They stain your hands, too, but they are so worth it!
While the cat plays with pea hulls because they are the Best! Toy! EVAR! (today.) I contemplate the other very cool thing we got at the market aside from the corn to be shucked and shocked and eggplant to be dehydrated into unsalted, low to no caloric chips, there are the surprise one-offs that sometimes show up at the stands.
Wait. Let me stop here and offer a trigger warning. If you are one of those people who suffers from a fear of missing out, this next part might be maddening to you. This is something that you have to accept simply happens and if you are there for it, great. It's a gift that life puts in your path at that time. So here goes. Don't say you weren't warned.
The farmers in the community where we get our produce are readers and lifelong learners. They pore over catalogs and publications to see what's new and what piques their interests. Experimental lots of off-season crops, small amounts of items that may never make another appearance will show up in odd corners of the stands alongside the standbys. Will it thrive there? Does it sell? Was this a trade with a relative at another community to see if this is worth the time and effort of both families? This is how they find out.
On this particular day, there are a dozen pint containers of grapes. Some were dark purple, almost black, and the others were green with specks of brown. These were Scuppernongs and Muscadines. unlike the wild grapes my mother picked when she was a little girl, these are huge! Most were just a little smaller than golf balls. Their sweet, wine-y goodness and the presence of pits mean this is not your kids' table grape! Their complex flavor and tough skins mean they are best enjoyed mindfully. I need to admit that it was lunch time, I did not want to undo the hard work I'd done to get healthier by eating junk and wanted something that would be low-fuss, good, and better for me. So, we got a container of each kind. They were very, very sugary, which meant I could only eat a few.
Still, we went back and bought two more containers of the Muscadines. The Scuppernongs were already gone. When we got them home, there was still the challenge of how to keep them until they could be eaten. There wasn't enough to make a good batch of juice or jam and I have no idea how to make wine and doubted there was enough for that. I decided to cut them in half, pit them, and freeze them. So now there is roughly a quart or so of frozen treats that can be reached for. Their juicy goodness will light up the palate and make us think of late Summer when we are in the gray days of Winter.
August 12, 2023
There are the oh, so predictable sentiments expressed by the farm stand workers, my mother, and now even me. Someone always says, "You've got your work cut out for you!" Yes, I do. It's work I enjoy. Shelling peas is good thinking time. I write stories in my head, plan maker's projects and think of what I'd like to paint or draw next. The other sentiment is one I have inherited from my maternal grandmother: You'll be glad to have this food come winter!" I say it now when my mother rolls her eyes at the bulging t-shirt bags of Purple-Hull Peas and Zipper Creams I heft to the register. She knows where I learned that saying and she will agree with me when I remind her.
They are as much a delight to the senses in their raw state as when they are served up as a warm bowl of creamy goodness with greens and cornbread. Some varieties are called Cow Peas or Crowder Peas and the outer pods can be light green, pale yellow, white, or in the case of my favorite kind, white with magenta specks. The peas are large, firm, and slightly waxy feeling. As is the case with my lovely Ztpper Creams, the firm pods give with a satisfying crack when they are shelled. This is the easy part. The bowls of shelled peas fill quickly and they are then blanched and shocked, a process where they are boiled for a couple of minutes and then submerged in ice water to keep them from cooking. After that, they are frozen, set to wait for shorter days and good, easy suppers.
I haven't mentioned working the Purple-Hulls yet. For those of you unfamiliar with them, they resemble Black-Eyed Peas. The difference is, they are a deeper green and purple at the plumula (the "eye" of the pea.) In West Texas, where I first ate them, they are picked earlier and the shelled peas are mixed with immature pods that are snapped like green beans. The same peas here in Tennessee and Kentucky are allowed to grow until the peas are considerably bigger and drier. The shells don't give in the same way and there are the inevitable runaway legumes all over the kitchen after the shelling part is done.
Purple-Hulls can be prepared like any other field pea. Like Black-Eyed Peas, they make great "caviar" when mixed with salsa and served cold as a side for Tex-Mex or as a taco filling. This is the pea to add to vegetable soup in Winter or as the protein half of Hopping John. Another delicious preparation for them is as a part of a plate with greens and the pot-liquor over cornbread. They are much harder to work then the blousy beauties, the big girls in their pretty, easily doffed pods. They stain your hands, too, but they are so worth it!
While the cat plays with pea hulls because they are the Best! Toy! EVAR! (today.) I contemplate the other very cool thing we got at the market aside from the corn to be shucked and shocked and eggplant to be dehydrated into unsalted, low to no caloric chips, there are the surprise one-offs that sometimes show up at the stands.
Wait. Let me stop here and offer a trigger warning. If you are one of those people who suffers from a fear of missing out, this next part might be maddening to you. This is something that you have to accept simply happens and if you are there for it, great. It's a gift that life puts in your path at that time. So here goes. Don't say you weren't warned.
The farmers in the community where we get our produce are readers and lifelong learners. They pore over catalogs and publications to see what's new and what piques their interests. Experimental lots of off-season crops, small amounts of items that may never make another appearance will show up in odd corners of the stands alongside the standbys. Will it thrive there? Does it sell? Was this a trade with a relative at another community to see if this is worth the time and effort of both families? This is how they find out.
On this particular day, there are a dozen pint containers of grapes. Some were dark purple, almost black, and the others were green with specks of brown. These were Scuppernongs and Muscadines. unlike the wild grapes my mother picked when she was a little girl, these are huge! Most were just a little smaller than golf balls. Their sweet, wine-y goodness and the presence of pits mean this is not your kids' table grape! Their complex flavor and tough skins mean they are best enjoyed mindfully. I need to admit that it was lunch time, I did not want to undo the hard work I'd done to get healthier by eating junk and wanted something that would be low-fuss, good, and better for me. So, we got a container of each kind. They were very, very sugary, which meant I could only eat a few.
Still, we went back and bought two more containers of the Muscadines. The Scuppernongs were already gone. When we got them home, there was still the challenge of how to keep them until they could be eaten. There wasn't enough to make a good batch of juice or jam and I have no idea how to make wine and doubted there was enough for that. I decided to cut them in half, pit them, and freeze them. So now there is roughly a quart or so of frozen treats that can be reached for. Their juicy goodness will light up the palate and make us think of late Summer when we are in the gray days of Winter.
August 12, 2023