Grandson (excitedly): “Wait, I think I know!: was it black-eyed peas?”
Grandpa: “Yes, that’s right. Although our ancestors from those days usually called them by other names such as ‘cornfield peas’ or ‘cow peas.’”
Grandson: “Why did they call them that?”
Grandpa: “They called them cow peas because they fed them to their cattle and other animals; some Southerners called them cornfield peas because they planted them in cornfields to keep the soil energized in those fields. Sometimes they planted rows of black-eyed peas in between rows of corn. Anyway, the northern army couldn’t destroy all of the black-eyed peas in the South due to their great abundance. By “abundance,” I mean there were lots and lots of them in all parts of the South, dried and sacked, and stockpiled for feeding their farm animals.
You see, black-eyed peas were thought by many people back then, both in the North and in the South, to be “animal food,” not fit for humans to eat. Since the Old South was an agrarian society, it had an abundance of farm animals of every sort, which of course had to be fed and taken care of, and black-eyed peas or corn field peas were a main food source for their animals.”
