Happy New Year! ~ 2006 ~ from Me and My Family,

~ South of the Gnat Line ~!

It is time to SOAK THE PEAS!!... You know, those black-eyed peas!!

I don’t know about you, but here in the South, eating black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day is a religion!  I believe if I didn’t eat my peas, I’d turn into a pillar of salt!  So much so, I bought my peas when I was shopping for my Christmas groceries a couple of week’s ago out of fear they might all be sold out this week!

Seriously!  The tradition is that sacred ~ south of the Mason Dixon!

Let me give you the inside scoop on the South’s traditional New Year’s Day meal:

The Menu:

Black-Eyed Peas ~ BIG pot full ~ in fact, largest pot that you own and that will fit on the stove top!

Collard Greens ~ they stink up the whole house and make you appreciate it days later when the air finally clears…ahem……I cook them and will eat “a leaf” of them, I also cook boiled cabbage (for me and our youngest son).  My husband and oldest son will eat the whole pot of collards and then complain because they are gone.  I bought fresh collards one time………..it took me two days to wash, clean and cut them and then a week to get the dirt and grit out of my sink.  You can have all the fresh collards you want – I buy the frozen chopped [and already cleaned ones] to cook ever since!

Ham ~ Alan always smokes a fresh ham or sometimes (….if they are on a “give away” sale price…) he may smoke a pork loin.

Cornbread ~ It’s the South.   Period.    The End.

The Interpretation:

The Peas are for Good Luck:   Black-eyed peas are also known as “cow peas” and are believed to have arrived in this country with native Africans when they were brought to this country enslaved in the late 1500’s and early 1600’s.  These peas were literally feed for cows.  If you’re a gardener – you’ll love growing them – they are the easiest of veggies to grow!  Following a raid during the Civil War when food had been confiscated by enemy troops, all that remained behind were these humbling peas.  It is believed that by eating black-eyed peas, it will bring good luck throughout the New Year.  Even the poorest of families, decades to centuries ago, almost always had dried black-eyed peas stored and leftover from the fall harvest.  I have always teased our sons and said that they must eat the same number of peas to match the year that it is…so y’all must each eat 2006 peas on New Year’s Day!

The Greens are for Wealth and Fortune:  Eating greens is believed to ensure good fortune in the New Year.  It is believed that by eating a wealth of well cooked greens on New Year’s Day, such a feat will yield profitable finances over the course of the next 365 days.  Collard greens have always been the “green” of first choice along with the same reasons as the black-eyed peas because it is an extremely easy crop to grow and most any family could come by them.  Other greens considered suitable substitutions: turnip greens, mustard greens and boiled cabbage.

Make no mistake; there are NO substitutions for the black-eyed peas.

The Ham is for Good Health:  Ham is pork.  Pork is pig.  The pig represents one of the healthiest of all the farm animals.  By eating ham or other pork meats with the traditional New Year’s meal, it is believed to bring good health in the New Year.

The Cornbread is the Bread of the South:  It is the Southern bread of choice.  In fact, cornbread may have been here before the South.

This year for our New Year’s Day meal, we will be having a giganotosaurus pot of black-eyed peas (in fact, I’ll put them on to cook some time New Year’s eve and they’ll be ready by midnight, if not before…), a pot of collard greens, smoked ham, stuffed cabbage rolls (the stuffing is a ground meat and rice mixture) and a number 8 size iron skillet full of hot buttermilk corn bread.

Y’all come on by!

Don’t just take my word for it; here are some web links that explore our beloved southern tradition:

http://oldfashionedliving.com/holidays/blackeyedpeas.html

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/plantanswers/vegetables/blackeye.html

http://southernfood.about.com/od/blackeyedpeas/r/blbb572.htm

You’ll need to scroll through and the read the posts on this site; these have accumulated over time:

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/writers/msg12132616959.html

http://www.topics-mag.com/internatl/holidays/new-year/customs/black-eyed-peas.htm

http://wilstar.com/holidays/newyear.htm

http://lomaprieta.sierraclub.org/lp0210_CookingGreen.html

http://www.news4jax.com/morningshow/4025848/detail.html

http://www.snopes.com/holidays/newyears/newyears.asp

http://allrecipes.com/advice/coll/all/articles/205P1.asp

http://www.fabulousfoods.com/holidays/newyears/ny.html

How our family rings in the New Year:

This is a fun family night for the Jacobs!  We take great pride in planning our fun filled night well in advance!  We have all sorts of movies, some old ~ maybe one or two new ones ~ sometimes, we even watch old family videos for a good laugh or two.  In years past, we’ve even played (Alan’s) old, old 45’s and danced like American Bandstand dancers in the family room.  We’ll have lots of great party snacks and board games!  We will also have a 500 piece puzzle working on the dining room table.  We play games all night and eat simultaneously.  We’ll talk about our blessings during the past year and how very blessed we are – period, the end!  We talk about things we should do to better ourselves personally and as a family.  We talk about plans for the farm, plans for homeschooling, and about our dreams and goals for the New Year.  Then around 11:45 p.m., if we’re still wired and awake…..and usually we are…..we’ll turn on the television to find the Times Square count down for New Year’s.  At the stroke of midnight, we all hug and kiss each other and run outside to shoot fireworks and burn sparklers.  Alan then gets his bugle and plays “Revele” (wildlife beware!) and we run around like idiots and act like the southern nuts we are!

Happy New Year to you and your family!  May the Lord bless you and yours throughout 2006!

Harriette K. Jacobs

South of the Gnat Line ™

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