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Like millions of Southerners from South Carolina to Texas, Keshia Kelly of Temple plans to make black-eyed peas with ham and ham hock on New Year’s Day for good luck in 2024.
According to Southern lore, eating black-eyed peas as part of the traditional New Year’s meal of cabbage, ham, and cornbread will bring good luck throughout the year.
Cabbage means “folding money” in the New Year, that is, wealth.
“We should probably make cabbage this year,” Kelly said. “But the kitchen always stinks. I think I should make some coleslaw.”
There is a good reason why there is a tradition of black-eyed peas, especially in temple areas.
Elmore “Tiger” Torn, father of movie star Rip Torn, lived in Temple during the 1920s and 1930s. He was an agronomist and economist who spent much of his life promoting the consumption of canned black-eyed peas.
When Tone moved his family to East Texas in the 1940s, he brought his research with him and was hired as a marketing guru for the Longview-based East Texas Chamber of Commerce and Industry, a struggling pea company. We planned a campaign for a bean cannery.
In the first half of the 20th century, canned black-eyed peas were a bit disgusting compared to fresh peas, but thanks to Tone’s marketing efforts, eating canned black-eyed peas on New Year’s Eve is a long-standing tradition. He convinced the Southerners that there was. It wasn’t really a tradition, but now it is thanks to his work.
People bought into the pitch, and Tone’s efforts saved the industry. Thanks to the wonders of science and agriculture, today’s canned black-eyed peas are much better, especially when cooked with ham hocks and spices.
Tone was born in 1906 and attended school in Taylor. He graduated from Texas A&M University, went into farming and quickly became a sought-after agricultural expert.
He said he first experienced black-eyed pea cooking on a South Carolina plantation in 1928. It was served as a dessert of “corn pone and pork jowls” after a meal of sweet potatoes and possum.
In the late 1930s, Mr. Tone hosted several “black-eyed pea parties” in the U.S. Senate Dining Room in Washington, D.C., extolling the virtues of peas to any member of Congress who would listen.
Mr. Tone’s campaign to promote black-eyed peas as a good luck food was so successful that people who had never heard of him still practice what he preached.
Every January 1st, Kelly and many others continue to eat Thon’s “traditional” meal.
For example, Kim Stevens of Temple eats black-eyed peas for good luck and cabbage for wealth.
“We eat corned beef, cabbage and peas,” Dazzett said.
“Peas for good luck, cabbage for money,” he says, “and we usually also eat ham, cornbread, deviled eggs and chow chow.”
Jim Britton said: “My mom used to make black-eyed peas and cornbread. My dad used to make pork roast and sauerkraut – he was from Ohio.”
“It’s ham, black-eyed peas, cornbread, fried cabbage and a little bit of onion, a little bit of bacon, a little bit of ham, sautéed in real butter,” Karen Pushbylski said.
However, not all temple residents follow southern traditions. For example, Donna Mecena stays true to her Lithuanian roots, and Bill Hunt follows the cheese path.
“We always eat herring,” Metena said.
Hunt said her family has set up a fondue table and is “grazing.”
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