One of my professors used to alert us that he was “making up history” when he gave logical explanations that could not be proven. I’ve thought about his words as I’ve considered the Southern tradition of eating black-eyed peas and cabbage (or collard greens) on New Year’s Day to ensure luck and money for the coming year. One can get some varied ideas about the origin of this practice on Google. Authentic history traces the black-eyed peas back to Africa. The rest of the history is murky so I’ll just make up a little history based on my knowledge of Southern culture.
Economically challenged Southern farming families, such as those in my own heritage, tend to put a rosy spin on bad situations. They were doing that long before Mary Poppins informed us that “a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down.”
In our family lore, my grandfather exclaimed every morning that cornbread with butter and sorghum molasses was “good breakfast” and convinced his five-year-old daughter Virginia (my mother) of the accuracy of that statement. The truth was that he grew the corn that was ground into meal for the cornbread and the sorghum that was processed into molasses. Butter from his dairy cows was plentiful. Other breakfasts cost money that he did not have.
This worked well until the little family made an overnight visit to relatives who were more stable financially. They put on a breakfast spread that would make any Southern cook proud with biscuits, sausage, and homemade jams and jellies. Virginia took one look and said, “But I wanted ‘good breakfast’!”
With this Southern tendency in mind, I have formed my own opinion of what instigated the tradition of luck and riches from peas and greens. I’m thinking that by January 1 each year, about all that was left to eat were the dried remnants of last summer’s black-eyed pea crop and the winter greens growing in the garden. Putting on a spin of luck and riches cast the menu in a better light.
I can’t prove whether my take on the history is correct. Having participated in this custom without fail every year, I can’t even vouch for the accuracy of the luck and money. I can say for sure that black-eyed peas and slaw make a “good supper.”