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Posts Tagged ‘Black-eyed peas’

Black-Eyed Peas for Luck

Posted in aging, Journeys, tagged , on January 2, 2026| 6 Comments »

A Dish of Hoppin’ John could bring you good luck in 2026 if you believe in luck

“I think we consider too much the good luck of the early bird and not enough the bad luck of the early worm.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt

Southerners, especially old broads like me, eat black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day. It’s a tradition I picked up from my grandmother way back in the 1940s. But this year I didn’t feel like cooking this pale, kidney-shaped bean with its black eye.

And, since life is short, I forgave myself for not making Hoppin’ John, a dish I usually make with black-eyed peas, onion, ham hock and rice.  

But it was with delight that I accepted a late invitation to join my granddaughter’s wife Dawn to go down to Shooters for a drink and some black-eyed peas. The drink was my usual Jack and Coke and the free black-eyed peas I ate was an annual tradition at the local bar.

Eating black-eyed peas to begin a new year is believed to bring one good luck, and it’s been part of Southern tradition now for over three centuries after being brought to America by West African slaves.

While I didn’t count the peas I ate, I’m sure they weren’t the required 365 that some say are needed to bring good luck for every day of a new year. Even so, I’m optimistic that luck will favor me in 2026.

And with that thought in mind, I slept very well last night. Of course, the J&C might have helped.

Pat Bean is a retired award-winning journalist who lives in Tucson with her canine companion Scamp. She is an avid reader whose mind is always asking questions (many of which are unanswerable), an enthusiastic birder, staff writer for Story Circle Network’s Journal, author of Travels with Maggie available on Amazon (Free on Kindle Unlimited), and is always searching for life’s silver lining.

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A Recipe for a Lucky Year

Posted in Food, Journeys, tagged , , , on January 3, 2019| 4 Comments »

Hoppin’ John: A southern recipe — Wikimedia photo

“Superstition is foolish, childish, primitive and irrational – but how much does it cost you to knock on wood?” — Judith Viorst

Black-Eyed Peas and Hoppin’ John

I had my black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day. My brother, who lives in a first-floor apartment beneath my third-floor apartment gave me some. They were good, and I am grateful. He cooked them with ham and onion. No telling how much bad luck I would have had if I hadn’t eaten them.

I’m not sure everyone knows what I’m talking about, but my southern readers almost certainly do. You eat black-eyed pea on New Year’s Day so you will have luck during the coming year. Why, you ask? Until I did a little bit of research yesterday, I would have probably answered: “Just because.”

Pepper. on right, and her best friend Dusty, enjoying a lazy day. It’s cold outside today in Tucson. — Photo by Pat Bean

But, thanks to the good ole Internet, here’s what I discovered.

“The practice of eating black-eyed peas for luck is generally believed to date back to the Civil War. At first, planted as food for livestock, and later a food staple for slaves in the South, the fields of black-eyed peas were ignored as Sherman’s troops destroyed or stole other crops, thereby giving the humble, but nourishing, black-eyed pea an important role as a major food source for surviving Confederates.”  — TripSavy

Wikipedia, which repeats but doubts the Sherman story, also suggests that black-eyed peas were a symbol of emancipation for African-Americans who had previously been enslaved, and who after the Civil War were officially freed on New Year’s Day.

My favorite black-eyed pea dish, which I also cook during the year and not just on New Year’s Day is Hoppin’ John. My version includes dried black-eyed peas cooked with ham hock, onion, and salt to taste, with rice added at the end as well as a goodly dousing of Worchester Sauce.

Bean Pat: The Value of One Chicken https://windbreakhouse.wordpress.com/2019/01/03/a-chicken-in-every-house/

Now available on Amazon

Common sense from one of my favorite writers.

Pat Bean is a retired journalist who lives in Tucson with her canine companion Pepper. She is a wondering-wanderer, avid reader, enthusiastic birder and is always searching for life’s silver lining. Check out her book Travels with Maggie, available on Amazon, to learn more.

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