A long time ago when I lived briefly in alabama, we had a nice garden and in addition to other things we grew "purple hull" peas.
I am shocked and appalled I cannot order seeds!! Not even from the major seed catalogues like burpy!
Why is this? Fixing nitrogen, heatproof, disease free, easy . . what's not to like?
I finally ordered some from a seed company on the web that sells them. It's a little late this year but I hope to get a crop in. It should be plenty hot for over a month and it won't get cold till november.
I'll plan better next year. I have 5 12 foot raised beds and 2 8ft raised beds. I am thinking next year of reserving 2 or three for peas. I can plant one of them, then start another bed a month later, ect.
I can't remember how long they produce. Are they like my green beans? They produce quite a bit before the heat slows them down. Then they produce a few more crops when it cools off.
I am under the impression they produce their crop all at once, hence the bed rotation. What can I plant with them? I think it would be neat to have peas and a few mammoth sunflowers per bed. I had one as big as a tree this year and have vowed to plant more.
Maybe I could plant a row of corn and use them as a cover crop. Has anyone else here grown field/cow peas? How many times can I plant them in the same bed? Does the soil get unindated with nitrogen granuals?
why aren't cowpeas more popular?!?
Several people here grow them including me. Mine went in two weeks ago here in the GA foothills so if you have the space you still have the time. You can usually find them super cheap and in bulk at any seed and feed store in outlying areas but you need to get them by spring as the feed and seeds often run out. We let ours go and grow along a fence line that has snap, snow and English peas earlier in the season. I only plant one crop of purple hulls a year. I plant them in front of the peas when the spring peas start to decline and they grab on to the old pea vines. They do great in the cooler autumn air and are tolerant of the drier weather. Running them up the fence line keeps them vertical when the tree leaves start to fall but is not necessary. We let ours dry and use them in winter because there is so much other food coming in from the garden during this time that won't store as well as peas. I save seed for planting the following year. Perhaps the reason many people don't grow them is because you need to plant a large space to get a lot of peas. Thus the term "field peas". They do well with little care but won't give a square foot gardener much yield. If you like southern peas try butterpeas (not the same as butter beans). They are like a super creamy baby limas.
They're popular in my neck of woods!lol
Our feed and hardware stores sell them by the bulk, around 2.30lb, much cheaper then mail order. I tried to find some more a few weeks back and everyone is sold out. Perhaps your looking to order them too late? You can also plant the dried black eyed peas form the store.
I've grown purple hull, don't care for them. But I can see why people would favor them for their strong taste.
Black eyed peas are fine with me but they're so cheap dried, I don't plant them.
Never had a crowder.
Cream Peas...YUM! Those are my favorite!
Most will put out a strong flush at first, then it seems they have bursts of blooms after rains or irrigation. It's getting late in the year here in zone 7, you may only get 1 bloom period...not sure of your zone tho.
I've never grown them in the same space twice in a row, don't know. This is my first year field growing them and for my planting dates, corn would have cooled them off too much to get a good start, they like heat! As long as you have good drainage you could till a spot in grass and grow them there. Weeds and grass don't seem to bother them for competition.
Happy eating!
I grow Dixie Speckled and save seed http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/38563/ They are more bushy than purple hulls. We also dry these though they are amazing fresh. Southern grocery stores usually have them frozen by mid-summer but not year around. http://www.pictsweet.com/our-products/butter-peas They are also sold frozen as "beans and snaps"; butterpeas with cut pencil beans. Ity is sometimes spelled as two words.
Dixie Butterpeas both Speckled and White are lima beans (P. lunatus) not peas ( Vigna unguiculata). Peas are available from any good seed company that sells to southern growers. http://www.willhiteseed.com/products.php?cat=54 http://www.twilleyseed.com/ http://www.vegetableseedwarehouse.com/peas.html http://www.rhshumway.com/dc.asp?c1=Cowpeas&c=264
Thanks for stepping in here, Dill. What I was trying to convey is that they are not your everyday lima bean. What do you think? Also, do you know hat bean they are using in beans and snaps?
Laurel
It depends. For years White Acre was very popular. Had a large operation is Glasscock county which furnished the area grocerys like Bi-Lo. Any southern pea can be snaps. Nothing more than the immature pods snapped and included with the green shellies. They can also be stir fried etc. Yardlongs/ Asparagus beans are a subspecies grown for the immature pods rather than the peas. Pinkeye Purple Hulls are some times sold commercially as shellies and snaps, more often as dried peas.
I get my "blackeye peas" seeds from here http://homeharvestseeds.com/homeharvestseedstableofcontents.htm
I am growing both California Blackeye #5 and Pinkeye Purple Hull this year. They are listed as cowpeas. BTW, a lot of their seeds are on sale right now. I am hoping to be moving next summer, and in theory, I should put my seed collection up for "Free for SASE" - but instead I am feeling this urge to HORD and buy MORE seeds...! Incurable, I fear!
My experience with growing black eyed peas is that the worms like them a LOT. The pink-eyes do not get quite so wormy. There are other field peas, such as whippoorwill, blue goose, zipper, big boy,calico, etc. We really like washday peas. They smell wonderful when cooking. Our favorite is still pink eyes. Luciee {;^)
blackeye peas are probably the only ones I don't like! I remember loving the purple hulls. I get an amazing tomatoe yeild out of my raised beds, I'll bet if I reserved 3 beds for purple hulls I could get a lot.
But basicallly it's just for me, my SO doesn't eat vegatables. I kind of crowd my stuff, not intentionally, I just get carried away. I grew corn this year! It didn't do to bad actually. I got some short ears but I hardly got any not worth cooking. I'll do it again.
I put in an order at one of those links above. I selected a few differant varieties. I will try planting them after my winter peas next spring. I actually havn't grown them yet due to teh long hunting season but this year all of my beds are raised and easy to maintain so I'm going to do better.
Any feed and seed store in the south will have them . Lot cheaper than ordering them. As for Blackeye peas, unless I want to trial a specific variety, I just buy a couple of lbs of dried peas from a grocery store.
Purple Hull lover here, too. Easily available in my area and a dedicated staple for all around. The are even sold frozen in the grocery stores; same for butter peas here, sold frozen year round. Personally I like them fresh and only let a certain amount dry for seed stock. When harvested fresh I cook a huge pot of them then cool and freeze in quart freezer bags for winter; just heat 'em up and you're good to go!
I have both in the garden producing now. Also just sowed two more rows of field peas yesterday for a later harvest. margocstn, I have no doubt you can get a harvest in before frost. If you can't find seed I'll send you some.
Shoe (cowpea lover, butterpea lover)
Dill and Shoe, can you get seed year around at your feed and seeds? Our few stores generally run out. Either they buy and stock Mayo packs in late Winter or they buy bulk seed and break it down to baggies priced accordingly. Either way it's cheap enough but when it's gone it's gone. I just realized I'm low on turnip seed and will be hard put to find some now. The one feed and seed that lets customers dip their own and then weigh at the counter had three year old Mayo bean seed on the shelf. As a result, I was distrustful of the stuff in the Maxwell House cans.
I save some back up seed in case of crop failure. This is all that's left.
I also grow Christmas beans. It's a very big lima. Beautiful but it looses it's speckles when cooked. I got the original seed over twenty years ago from the Bob's Red Mill products in a health food store.
Laurel, usually cowpeas are easily available here. However, for several years there was a shortage of the real "Pinkeye Purple Hulls" and the supplier (Wyatt-Quarles) substituted others. I had some older seed of Pinkeye Purple Hulls so grew those out, taking seed from an early crop and resowing them for a later crop the same year and re-gaining a good supply. So, yes, field peas are easily available but PEPHulls are iffy, depending on availability. I've tried a few other kinds but really prefer Pinkeyes and another variety I call Betty's Field Peas, which are very similar. (That seed stock came from the same source as the Betty's White Okra I sent seeds to you of.)
I grow Christmas beans, too. Also known as Speckled Butter Beans here but yet there seem to be several versions of those, some being referred to as Calico beans. Mine are a pole type but I've grown one variety that was bush.
I really like Willowleaf beans also, one of my most favorite "lima" types. (And F-dill, am growing out your "Willow-pea" cross this year again; will let you know how it goes)
Shoe
I've been a purple hull pea lover since I was a child and would go out with my dad to pick them. Back then the government paid farmers to plant them as a cover crop and then plow them under at the end of the season to improve the soil. Since we lived in a farming area we would drive around the countryside and find a field of purple hull peas ready for picking, knock on the farmer's front door and ask if we could pick some. According to government regulations they were not supposed to allow anyone to pick them but most would say they'd turn their back and not watch while we took all that we wanted. And we did. My mom would cook them along with some cornbread and it was yum-o! I've never thought to try growing them myself I guess because I've always seen them growing in a field that was at least an acre or so and I didn’t think I had enough space.
That story made me have a big heart smile, hrp50. I lived a barren childhood growing up on the ocean with palm trees and hibiscus. Thankfully my parents saw fit to enrich me with travel abroad. I was sent to camp in the N. GA mountains where I learned a foreign language and foodways.
I can't grow enough southern peas to suit because we have a pretty productive garden going most months on a quarter acre. But knowing I can grow enough for a half dozen or so winter meals while enriching the soil is good enough for me. I'd like to try more varieties. Speaking of which...
Shoe, the bean you call a speckled butter bean is what I know as a "sieva" which is varying shades of brown or tan and speckled. My northern parents ate what they called sievas (Dad was in the wholesale produce business and knew his stuff) but I'd never seen these Christmas beans before. I realize they are just a variety of one big family. The size and color grabbed me. They are twice the size of what I know as a speckled butter bean/sieva. I'm gonna try some of your recommends next year.
Dill, what are your favorites that can be seed saved and are most productive for smaller spaces? Is "shelly" northern term? Can I convert my over the hill yard longs to shellys?
Maypop, The Sieva aka Carolina is a white pole baby lima http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/40278/ . The commercially available speckled baby lima is the Florida Butterbean which I just noticed that some folks call the Mottled Sieva ( I never heard it called that) http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/40346/ . The Christmas lima ( where I grew up it was called Calico) is a giant lima http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/40283/. Giant white limas include King of the Garden http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/40322/. Since the heirloom invasion there are lots of varieties of all kinds out there. But the listed ones have been commercially available for a hundred years. A hundred years ago there were a number of potato limas available both pole and bush. Today I only know bush ones Dixie Butterpeas, Baby Fordhooks and the large Fordhooks. Characteristic is that they are much thicker, than the flat limas.
You can save seed of any lima, or southern pea. Both do cross readily so you have to be careful if you want to keep a variety pure. Yard longs are not much on pea formation as they were developed for pods. But yes You can shell them out green or dry. Shelly is a southern abbreviation of green shelled, in my youth mostly applied to common beans like horticulturals ( called October beans in my neck of the woods) Most butterbeans and peas were used as shellies, and when dried were called dried peas or dried butterbeans. Southern peas are quite productive so its best to pick the taste that you like best. I like Big Boys, but like to vary things with Black crowders, White Acre etc. You can just look through plantfiles for the varieties I grow. I don't get very exotic, but shoe does so if you want something out of the ordinary, he is your man.
Laurel, "Shoe, the bean you call a speckled butter bean is what I know as a "sieva" which is varying shades of brown or tan and speckled".
The 'speckled butter bean I know of isn't brown and tan but rather a dark marroon and whitish, like the pic you posted above. And F-dill, thanks for helping me to think I've gone crazy; we have Sieva available here, a white bean, but the most favored is Calico/speckled (named).
"Is "shelly" northern term? Can I convert my over the hill yard longs to shellys?"
Laurel, I think your over-the-hill yard longs would be better as a dried bean. I guess it depends on how far over the hill they are. Better get to shelling them!
Farmerdill, does anyone down your way still offer Tobacco Worm Bean? Sometimes just called Worm Bean. I had some stock from the mountain region some years back and either gave too much away or never saved seed one year. Those beans are highly recommended by me as my most favored. I sure wish I could find some real seed stock of them again.
Shoe (who's most favorite shell beans are Pinkeye Purple Hulls, Dixie White butterpeas, and Willowleaf butterbean, and yep, Tobacco Worm bean)
Shoe, I've heard of all these beans 'cept Willowleaf. Grown Pinkeye but not enough to judge and Dixie White (I love these) but not Tobacco Worm. Thanks for the recommend and I'll keep a sharp eye out for the others.
Dill, thanks for the information. I know from previous posts over the years you have a lot of bean knowledge to pass on. Beans are as complex a topic as tomatoes. I'd say even more so but people would probably start hurling fruit in my direction. The Sieva I know is the Florida Mottled Butterbean. I see Burpee offers both Calico beans and Christmas beans. They look identical.
Here ya go, Laurel...the reason they are called "Willowleaf". Quite a different leaf form than other beans, eh? And they really perform well here, right up to a hard killing frost.
I love that, Shoe! And you're not having to crawl around on the ground either. I know Dill prefers staying low in his bean patch but I like looking skyward.
Yep. Willow Leaf has a longer DTM than Sieva/Carolina, pods and beans are very similar. Most years Willow Leaf will out produce Sieva over the long haul. My taste buds are not sophisticated enough to differentiate between them on the table. Tobacco Worm is an old pole bean. When I was a kid and the Mountain Half Runners began showing up, lots of folks called them Tobacco worms. Short round beans that reminded folks of tobacco worms, which had to handpicked from Tobacco in those days. The only one I have encountered is white seeded. Sustainable Mountain Agriculture offers two types white seeded and brown seeded http://www.heirlooms.org/catalog.html . I use to grow Little Greasy, which would best be described as a pole version of the Mountain Half Runner. The summers here got hot for them too often and I ran out of viable seeds. Perform well in Southwest Virginia.
I recall the seed and feeds up at Maypop always stocked Mayo Mountain Half Runner packs. I've not noticed them or grown them but I think they are still available. The ones I saw were white seeded. I've never grown them. They've had Greasy too but that name turned me off. I'm definitely interested in Willowleaf because late beans are a relief when dealing with the rest of the garden.
Do you guys also do all the drying, canning and freezing? That really adds to the garden job.
I gave up canning a few years back.
Send me your jars. I've got a bumper crop of tomatoes to can this week. lol
I left them behind when I moved from Virginia in 92. Still have my old Burpee can sealer. Not sure if if one can buy cans anymore. Used to order them from Montgomery Ward in 200 can cases back in the 50's. If we ran short could get the regular steel cans at the community cannery. All these things are a bygone era now. Gone the way of butter churns , molds, cream seperators and milk cans.
I have two house cows and make all our dairy products...the era may gone, but not forgotten :0) Another reason I love the southern peas..the cows can have the vines once I get my share of the harvest.
I shell mine and toss into a freezer bag until full. They don't stick together and I can scoop out as much as I need, when I need them.
I like mine hot with a dollop of mayo stirred in. My family thinks this is crazy and I don't know where I picked up the habit. Anyone else eat them this way?
Farmerdill and cocoa_lulu
Although I'm thankful for all of the modern conveniences and things we have now, I also long for the simpler life we had back in the 50's when I was a wee lad. Nothing better than the cooking methods of my grandmother and mom and how everything was always cooked fresh from scratch and picked from the garden or store bought that day. My mom would never, ever serve us a frozen dinner; I never tasted one until I was in my thirties; and making a cake from a mix, she would never stand for it. And what a treat it was to go to my grandma’s for dinner and be served fried chicken that had been slaughtered that morning, potatoes and greens from their garden, hot yeast rolls with fresh churned butter, and homemade blackberry cobbler, all washed down with nice cool water from their well. And her idea of ice cream was to milk the cows, skim off the cream, mix it with sugar and vanilla and freeze it in metal ice trays. Yes, those were the days!
We did not have electricity in my youth. Snow cream was a great treat when we got winter snows. Just before I left home, we did get a Servel kerosene refrigerator, it did have a small freezer compartment with two metal ice trays. In those days in addition to Blackeyes, we grew something the Southern States cooperative call a Cream pea. Have not encountered it in recent years. Light brown pea with humongous vines. I remember gently walking through that peapatch bare foot to pick peas as they left you no room to walk without trampling the vines. I only grow well behaved peas these days.
Farmerdill
I seem to remember my mom serving us peas she called Crowder peas, which sound like the cream peas you are describing, and were equally as delicious as the purple hull peas. I've about decided next year to try and grow some type of peas, either Crowder or Purple Hull, so that I can try and relive that part of my childhood. I will build a special bed just for them so they have plenty of space. I need to do research to see if the seeds of those varieties are still available. Any farmers from Iowa or other mid-west states, where they feed them to their livestock (what a waste), know about this?
As of fairly recently you could bring your produce to a cannery (I think it's in Gainseville, GA) and the University of GA home economists supervise and help with canning. I looked into it one time but don't grow enough at one time that I couldn't do it at home. We have a Dutch butter churn, all kinds and sizes of crocks for brining and a big old milk can. The milk can and churn are decorative but we use the crocks.
Cocoa, I once bought a pony and had no place to put him so I kept him on the deck for a week while we fenced our pasture. SO was not thrilled. The point of which is, I've heard of deck ponies but never house cows. :>)
I love these reminisces. They were what I read about in books when I was a child. I had modern career parents. Mom was a great cook and trained chef/nutritionist but there were plenty of frozen dinners, restaurant meals and take out foods in between. Neither of them knew the right end of shovel. They used to come visit, see my garden and marvel at how I was able to do it. It was magic to them. Truthfully, it's still magic to me.
Hrp50, I hope my kids will look back and fondly remember our 'simple time' here on the farm. Maybe decide to do it for themselves. I make ice milk too, warm, straight from the cow dissolves the sugar and vanilla, then I chill and put in the ice cream maker. I have popsicle molds too, will try your grandmother's method for the kids. Thank you!
Ha, Maypop! Hope no one takes my 'house cows' as literal as you deck pony :0) I'll never forget a neighbor that brought home a pony in the back seat of an LTD.
The cream pea I've been growing for about 4 years was given to me by a neighbor, and she got it from a neighbor. None of us know the name. It was well behaved, until this year and started rambling. I thought it might have been Texas Cream 40. I'm going to try the 40s next year and compare.
cocoa_lulu
I'm proud to say most of the kids that I went to high school with that were raised on a farm ended up going back and becoming farmers. I wish I had had the experience of growing up on a farm but I don't know if I would have chosen such a hard way of life.
"I love that, Shoe! And you're not having to crawl around on the ground either. I know Dill prefers staying low in his bean patch but I like looking skyward."
Laurel, heheheh, yeh, I much prefer a pole bean to bush beans when it comes to production as well as harvesting. I plant both cus at some point in time each year I get tired of bending over for my harvest! Also cus pole beans produce all summer till fall usually. I like bush beans early in the year and get them going much earlier than pole beans can be sown (they like a bit more heat than bush beans). Sometimes (as I have done this year) I'll resow a later crop of bush beans...I have two 100 ft rows of Blue Lake Bush up and going now for a later crop and will can those for winter.
hrp50, your "cream peas" are similar to many other cowpeas/field peas but go by that name because they tend to not have any eye color to them. The ones I've grown also have much smaller seed than the colored types (pinkeyes, big boy, etc).
F-dill, thanks for the link. My original Tobacco Worm Beans came from Bill Best at that link. I guess I'll have to bite the bullet and order some more ($7.00/packet. Yikes!) Maybe this time I will learn to save my stock better and either not give it away or not eat it up! :>)
Shoe (who started this post an hour ago, forgot to hit SEND, and went out to dig a worm pit) Sheesh!
I have grown Texas Cream 8 and Texas Cream 40. Don't know many numbers have actually been released. They are fairly popular here, but production for me was subpar to most others. Zipper has performed the best. Elite is highly touted, but I have not gotten around to trying it yet. I know about 12 and 76 but I would expect some of the numbers in between have been marketed also.
Making a list and checking it twice, Dill.
Shoe, I'd consider bending for some southern peas but not a snap bean. We've got too much coming in to be craving an early harvest. Before I know it I'm drowning in snaps and string beans. I usually grow Blue Lake pole but passed for others this year. We are currently growing Kentucky Wonder brown seeded pole, Rattlesnake and McCaslin. Used to grow Blue Lake bush years ago. For sure those pole beans will rot if planted in wet soil even if the the temps are warm.
Cocoa, the pony was obtained from one of those old chicken house turned auction barns. SO had left the auction action to get something cold to drink on a hot summer night. By the time he got back I had bought a paint pony for our two youngest. I named him Ritz Bitz. He was a pretty mean guy but a gorgeous piece of yard art for years. He was so lazy that when we tacked him up and took the kids out to ride he'd go a few hundred yards, lay down and roll over with our child on board. One of them ended up hating horses. lol
Hrp, we need more farmers and market gardeners for sure.
I got the peas I ordered monday! I had an empty raised bed I was going to wait to plant in but I decided to put some peas there!
They were out of the one kind but I got the texas pinkeye purplehulls! Hopefully I'll get some! The hunt club I am a member of plants peas in the food plots, I could try to pick those later on, not sure what kind they are but it's some kind of field pea. I don't know why I didn't put 2 and 2 together sooner. I think because there aren't very many peas.
I'm enjoying the stories! I think farmer dill is older than me!