Shelling Peas

I went to the farmer's market this morning. I love going there on Saturdays in the summer as often as I can. It's pretty much as true to a old-fashioned farmer's market as you can get. It's outside and each farmer has a table with their farm name on the front. I like getting to know the farmer's and seeing what new they have from week to week and getting to try stuff I'd never find in the store.

A couple of weeks ago I started to see peas show up, as summer finally began ripening them and this week I bought a basket of black-eyed peas. I love peas. Cream peas are my favorite, but just about any type of peas will do :)

Now, you can get black-eyed peas in the grocery store either as frozen peas or dryed peas, for less work and less money. But I really enjoy buying the basket of peas to shell. I like knowing that I'm supporting the local farmers to continue doing what they do. But more than that, it brings back memories from when I was a kid.

Summers meant picking veggies and shelling peas and shucking corn (and mom always had her requesite three or four bags of fresh creamed corn, which Jason always claimed made him sick to his stomach!) and other such vegetable duties, shared by the whole family, to freeze up and last through the winter.

Yes, it's more work to shell the peas yourself, especially when you realize that you can shell peas for half an hour and only get enough to make for dinner that night. But there's something relaxing and satisfying about monotonously shelling peas and seeing them mound up as you continue through the basket of pea-pods sitting beside you.