Happy 2011 and Why I'm Eating Beans and Greens

Wishing everyone a happy and prosperous New Year!

I did my part by cooking and eating "a mess of greens and beans." Black-eyed peas and collard greens, which you eat on New Year's Day to bring you good luck and prosperity.  The greens represent cash, and the peas are coins. The cornbread--corn pone-- must represent Debit cards...my cornbread was pretty flat and crusty.

But, surrounded by Yankees at one point, I couldn't explain to them why beans & greens bring prosperity.

So I did a little armchair research--via Google.

From Suite 101: One idea is that, "American slaves stayed up on December 31, 1862 waiting for the bill that President Abraham Lincoln signed - the Emancipation Proclamation – to go into effect. They celebrated with what they had – black eyed peas ad greens."

And the not so exciting theory: " Black eyed pea and greens tradition is shared across cultural and ethnic boundaries, so it seems more likely that black eyed peas which keep well when dried and collards which are seasonal in the South in December/January made sense for a New Year meal."

I've also heard that after the civil war and Sherman's march, there wasn't much left but greens and beans.

Never mind. It's a good meal..beans & greens.

I don't throw in a ham hock, though. I'm vegetarian, so I use olive oil and jalapenos.

From Suite101: New Years Black Eyed Peas and Collard Greens: Why Do Southerners Eat Peas and Greens on Jan 1? http://www.suite101.com/content/new-years-black-eyed-peas-and-collard-greens-a183025#ixzz19ua6zVtj