Friday, August 13, 2021

Purple Hull Peas Revisited

 


It has been a long week. I had surgery on Tuesday to remove a catheter from my chest so I am supposed to take it easy for a bit. So since I had to warm the armchair I got O Wise One to pick the purple hull peas and I sat and shelled 3 five gallon buckets of them and canned 18 quarts of purple hulls.  

Purple hull peas are a southern staple famous for being drought tolerant and also tolerant of poorer soils. I use purple hulls extensively in my garden not only as an easily grown protein source but also as a cover crop and soil builder. 

When I was on the larger farm I planted a row of purple hulls between my mounded potato rows once the potatoes bloomed. Once they bloom they start putting on small potatoes in the mounded rows and then the plant dies back. The purple hulls came up and completely covered the dying potato plants helping to keep the potato mound rows cool and moist and smothering out any weeds. The other plus is that being a legume it helps to fix nitrogen in the soil. 


Once the purple hulls bloom they are wonderful because you know easily once they turn purple and change color they are ready to pick. The other great thing is that they hold their pods high up above the plants so there is no digging in the foliage to find the beans. That makes them super easy to pick.


Once the purple hulls are picked then the potatoes can be dug from between the rows of purple hulls by either pulling the purple hulls or cutting them off. It is a way of double cropping and getting two crops off the same space. Then the purple hull plants can be either composted or disked or tilled under if you till. 

Here in the smaller garden I continue to use Purple Hull peas as cover crops. Here in the picture above they are planted behind the fruit trees as a cover crop. Once they produce pods and are picked  I want to plant this fence line with young blackberry sprouts. The peas will be cut off and since I do not till I will use the massive amount of green leaves and stems to feed my compost efforts.  The compost will then be used to mulch the blackberry plants over the winter and enrich the soil. 

I also use the purple hulls in my boxes between crops. This box of peas was planted behind an early spring crop of mustard greens. Now that I have canned the peas in the boxes I will plant a fall crop of greens of some sort. Mustard greens, romaine lettuce and maybe turnips. 


The other great thing about purple hulls is the amount of green matter it adds all summer to the compost piles. 

Here is the link to the tutorial on how to pressure can purple hull or field peas.


And when you have canned your peas I also make a bean salsa with them that you can find instructions for here. 


So until my next round of purple hull canning in a few weeks I will be cutting up the pea vines and starting a new compost probably next week. I hope everyone has a great week end and be careful in this heat.

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter
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3 comments:

  1. You are so amazing..I love your blog more than anyone else's in the whole world. ���� Thank you and bless you.

    I'm originally from Texas and we often plant purple hulls and black eyed peas pretty regularly there.
    I moved to Ohio 23 years ago and could only find black eyed peas at the grocery store but no purple hulls anywhere. Year before last I got a big package at the feed store when I was visiting Texas and grew both side by side. I decided I wasnt going to waste my space anymore with the black eyeds because the purple hulls were a lot quicker to produce and dont run near as much as the beppo. And as you said, they show you when they're ready.. such a great Southern pea!
    Have a great weekend and be well!!

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  2. I was worried about you! Canning 18 qts doesn't sound like taking it easy, CQ. :)
    I've never tried purple hull peas but haaaate black eyed peas. Do they taste similar?

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    1. You sound like my daughter : ) Purple hull peas have a very different taste to black eyed peas or crowder peas. They have a more slightly sweet and nutty taste. Personally black eyed peas are not my favorite either. My husband had never had purple hull peas but his mother had always made back eyed peas. Once we were married and I introduced him to purple hull he never went back.

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