Happy New Year and Luck...

In 1967, Bobbie Gentry wrote the ballad “Ode to Billie Joe”. One of the lyrics mentions them: “Papa said to Mama as he passed around the black-eyed peas, "Well, Billy Joe never had a lick of sense; pass the biscuits please."

I put them in a pot last night before we watched the ball drop. Letting them soak all night long, it made cooking them a lot quicker today.

Yes, I’m talking about those black-eyed peas.

Being from the Deep South, it is a tradition to eat black-eyed peas and collard greens or turnip greens on New Year’s Day. This is supposed to bring good luck for the year ahead.

So this morning, I cooked the peas with a piece of fatback and plenty of water. I made a pan of buttermilk cornbread, cooked some corn and pork, and settled in for a long day of parades, football, eating and relaxing.

I was always told that the peas stood for good luck, and the greens stood for paper money….the more you ate on New Years, the more you had that year.

Eating black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day isn’t a tradition that began in the southeastern U.S., however. It actually goes all the way back to the Babylonians. In fact, in the Babylonian Talmud, compiled around 300 A.D., it is written that “these good luck symbols avail, and you should make it a habit to have Qara (a bottle gourd with water), Rubyia (black-eyed peas), Kartie (leeks or onions), Silka (spinach or other greens), and dates on the table at the beginning of each new year.”

Most southerners trace the "good luck" traditions back to the U.S. Civil War. Union troops, especially in areas targeted by General William Tecumseh Sherman, would typically strip the countryside of all stored food, crops, and livestock and destroy whatever they couldn't carry away.

At that time, Northerners considered "field peas" and corn suitable only for animal fodder, and as a result didn't steal or destroy these humble foods. Many Southerners survived as a result of this mistake. A common expression at that time was “I’m just lucky to have some peas.”

So today, I ate some black-eyed peas for my family. And I ate some more for the neighbors. I even ate some for my beloved Auburn Tigers, who didn’t make it into this year’s bowl picture. Maybe a little luck will come their way as well.

And before you start fussing at me for eating peas and cornbread, I want to point out something. Black-eyed peas are a good source of calcium (211 mg in 1 cup) and Vitamin A (1305 IU).

So Happy New Year to you all. And as the words belted out in the song “Soulville” by the great Aretha Franklin so aptly put it: “I’m talking ‘bout the black-eyed peas, down in Soulville…..yeah!!!”

WJLaneSR