Field peas

An African immigrant turned Southern staple could save the day

Tony Hudson / Wikimedia

Maybe you’re surprised to see a photo of black-eyed peas this week, amid the brutal summer swelter. Aren’t those a traditional New Year’s Eve food?

Well, yes, especially here in the South. Summer, though, is when black-eyed peas, along with many other “field peas,” are ready to harvest. Which means now is when they can be eaten fresh. That’s an excellent reason to celebrate.

The black-eyed peas is just the most famous of the field peas—also known as cowpeas—but it’s not the most beloved. The food writer Kim Severson once called them the iceberg lettuce of the cowpea: they’re industrialized and deflavored.

There are many heirloom cowpeas whose seeds have handed down from generation to generation in communities across the South, particularly Black communities. Severson notes their rich names: the turkey craw pea, the washday pea, the red…