Shelling Peas

Long ago, in a land far away, nope, such a place never existed. Yet it did and still does in my memory. This morning I saw this picture posted by my Lakeside friend, Charlotte Donaldson, of freshly shelled peas and snap beans, and I was transported back in time to my Aunt Janis’s farm in Poplar Creek, MS.

That was a simpler time, much like Garrison Keillor’s Lake Woebegone. Kids never back-talked, and when we told to come and shell some peas, we did it. Bushels and bushels of them sitting on the porch, shelling and talking. Purple hull peas stained my fingers purple, and I hated when the butter beans came in; they seemed the hardest to shell and made my fingers sore. And if someone stopped by, seeing folks gathered on the porch, they were given a big bowl too and joined the conversation and shelling.

There was a predictable urgency to farming back then. The fields had been plowed, made ready for planting, and at just the right time, the seeds went into the soil. And then the waiting for the rain; but not too much or too little. I don’t remember going out and hoeing the weeds out of the acres and acres of crops; I guess the boys had to do that. In the blink of an eye, they were ready to be picked; back-breaking work, but if we were told to pick a mess of vegetables, we did it. Soon, all those bushels were loaded into the old truck and brought to the house, and it was all hands on deck to shell them before they spoiled. Then came the blanching and freezing. My Aunt Virgie made the best tomato-based vegetable soup in the world, and I can still remember seeing dozens and dozens of Mason jars stored in the storeroom. Corn was sent to the mill to be ground into corn meal, feed, and some cobs left for the chickens. 

Store-bought food was just the barest necessity. Families ate, day in and day out, what they grew and slaughtered.

I will have to ask my cousins, the ones remaining who will talk to me, what they are doing today. I’m pretty sure they no longer have a garden. But if they did, and they called me to the porch to sit a spell and shell some peas, I would go.

San Antonio Tlayacapan, MX

September 20, 2022