Peas for pennies. Greens for dollars. Cornbread for gold. -- by Albemarle Tradewinds Staff

An old southern tradition is to eat Black-eyed peas to bring good luck and prosperity for the coming year.  Black-Eyed Peas are cooked with pork for flavoring (bacon, hog jowls, ham bones, or fatback), and with diced onions.  The traditional meal features collards, turnip, or mustard greens flavored with salt pork.

The peas symbolize  prosperity; the greens symbolize money. The Cornbread symbolizes Gold.

During the civil war, Yankee soldiers took the best and left behind black-eyed peas, feed corn, and fatty pork (fatback). Foods considered unworthy for  human consumption, the Yankees considered them “livestock food”. Areas targeted by General Sherman, stripped the countryside of all food, livestock, and crops then destroyed what they couldn't carry.
Those left to deal with the destruction considered themselves lucky to have peas as nourishment.

Another popular dish for the New year is Hoppin’ John (or Carolina peas and rice), a mixture of black-eyed peas, rice, and bacon or ham hock.

As another old saying goes, “Eat poor on New Year’s, and eat fat for the rest of the year.”

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