Canning Field Peas

Well nothing says southern more than peas. Not those fancy little green English peas. No I'm talking about those salt of the earth regular old field peas. Also known as cow peas, crowder peas, or maybe them Mississippi purple hull or even pink eyed purple hull. You know when your garden is "comin in" when you sit down to a plate of Hoppin John or maybe just some peas cooked down in ham hocks. Sit down to that and some sliced cucumbers and tomatoes, maybe throw some okra in them peas, some sweet buttermilk corn bread and a glass of sweet tea and you have a meal fit for a king. A southern king maybe but a king never the less.

And indeed my peas have come in. So Baby O, grandson Hank and I spent Thursday morning shelling peas. Once Hank's mom came and picked him up it was time to can peas. First I wash my shelled peas and pick through them good. 

While I am washing my peas I put my spaghetti cooker on to boil and also put on my jar lids to warm. 

Once my water is boiling my peas go into my cooker for 3 minutes and then I dump the hot peas into my giant colander. 

They are rinsed again and allowed to drain well. 

And there you have blanched peas. At this point if you wanted you could spread these on cookie sheets and freeze to bag later in Food Saver bags. But with a pig to butcher in the fall and 40 turkeys to go in the freezer. Not to mention chickens and a deer or two. Freezer room may be at a premium. Therefore I am going to can these field peas.  

So I take and fill my quart jars about 3/4 full with blanched peas and add 1/2 teaspoon of canning salt to each quart jar. 

Then I fill each jar with boiling water

Then remove air bubbles.

Wipe rims with a clean dish towel.

Then finger tighten hot lids and rings and place in pressure canner. Each 7 quart jar batch is canned at 10 pounds pressure for 50 minutes. 

While I am waiting for the pressure to go down on one batch I get the next batch ready to go in the canner. This evening while Baby O was on a babysitting job and O Wise One was at a Township board meeting I managed to can 18 quarts of peas. I also managed to fill up the roaster with another cooking of tomatoes for sauce. So that's my job for tomorrow. I'll finish cooking down and canning tomato sauce. 

If you would like to follow along or maybe try your hand at canning peas you can find this recipe on page 68 of the Ball Blue Book (100th Anniversary Edition). This method is used for blackeyed, crowder or field peas. 

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter

Laura Williams Canning Carnival