Slice of Life Story Challenge March 13 -The Lost Joy Of Shucking Peas


The Lost Joy of Shucking Peas



 A brief conversation with Vicki, my wife this morning about cooking set me to doing some researching. Vicki said, ‘You must be itching to do some cooking given that you’ve been away with work and haven’t been able to cook.’ I later had a quick browse through our extensive collection of cooking books hoping for the waft of an idea.


While searching for culinary inspiration, I stumbled across an entry in Bill Grainger’s food book ‘Holidays.’ I write ‘food book’ because that is what the title states. Not recipe book, but food book. The author is making a clear and deliberate distinction. Below Bill’s recipe for Tagliatelle with fresh peas and lemon, he extols the value of fresh peas.

‘Fresh peas are so wonderfully evocative of spring and another ingredient we seem to bypass in our modern lives. In an ideal world, we’d all spend half an hour a week on the back door step, shelling peas.’

This simple observation set me to thinking of a simpler time before frozen foods made us lazy. I vividly recall as a boy watching my mother sit with a generous pile of freshly picked green peas from our small backyard garden in her lap and patiently work through the process of shelling them into a waiting saucepan. She would use her thumb to prise open the pod before carefully running said thumb along the length of the pod directing the firm green peas into the waiting container. This process was called shelling or ‘shucking’ the peas. We also apply this term to oysters and corn.

Whenever my Nana visited, it never took long before she was drafted into the pea shucking business. Whenever I was allowed to share in the task, a significant number of peas failed to make it into the saucepan. For me fresh uncooked peas tasted delicious. I could never understand why so many kids found them not to their liking. Cooked with fresh mint and a pinch of butter made them irresistible.

The process of shucking peas has passed away like dickey seats in cars. We now reach into the freezer for the frozen variety. We have substituted freshness and flavour for convenience. We have along the way lost the therapeutic benefits of sitting down and exchanging pleasantries as we work our way through a pile of peas. There was something calm and contemplative about sitting around with a pile of peas. Thirty minutes on the veranda shelling peas sounds like the perfect antidote to the sometimes mad rush of our daily lives. Pass the peas please.



Comments

  1. Dogtrax13 March 2016 at 21:49

    At our community farm, we get peas in season and shuck them. We also plant them in our garden, letting the kids pick them as they please, nibbling away at the sweetness of them.
    Kevin

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Alan j Wright14 March 2016 at 10:59

      All good stuff Kevin. Fresh, organic and meaningful.

      Delete
  2. C.Crouch14 March 2016 at 00:58

    Your title grabbed me and thrust me back into the time my daddy would sit with a 5 gallon bucket shelling peas and snapping beans! You are right, we barely have the time to grab and cook the frozen variety nowadays. He spent hours cultivating, watering and picking them himself from his garden as well. And boy did he make a delicious "black eyed pea" soup!

    ReplyDelete
  3. C.Crouch14 March 2016 at 00:59

    Your title grabbed me and thrust me back into the time my daddy would sit with a 5 gallon bucket shelling peas and snapping beans! You are right, we barely have the time to grab and cook the frozen variety nowadays. He spent hours cultivating, watering and picking them himself from his garden as well. And boy did he make a delicious "black eyed pea" soup!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Alan j Wright14 March 2016 at 11:00

      A memory 'frozen' in time. A good memory at that.

      Delete
  4. Rose Cappelli14 March 2016 at 01:35

    One of the earliest memories I have of my grandmother is of her sitting in the backyard shelling peas. Thank you for rekindling a lost memory!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Alan j Wright14 March 2016 at 11:02

      You are welcome Rose. Memories warm and sustain us.

      Delete
  5. Alice Nine14 March 2016 at 08:48

    I love it... Ah, you rolled back time to sights and sounds of bygone summers--shelling peas, snapping beans, and shucking corn. And there was no better eating! Garden fresh, organic and we didn't even know it. Perhaps our moms and grandmas liked those time because they could rest and "be useful."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Alan j Wright14 March 2016 at 11:04

      I like the idea of resting and being simultaneously useful Alice. Those bygone summers hold much on the way of precious memories.

      Delete
  6. Ramona14 March 2016 at 09:35

    We never shelled peas, but we certainly snapped many green beans. Even today, I love snapping my green beans (even though they come from the farmer's market or the grocery store instead of our backyard garden).
    There's something very satisfying about the sound and then the drop into the pan.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Alan j Wright14 March 2016 at 11:05

      The snap of freshness Ramona is something we place high value upon. It's a comforting sound indeed.

      Delete
    2. Alan j Wright14 March 2016 at 11:05

      The snap of freshness Ramona is something we place high value upon. It's a comforting sound indeed.

      Delete
  7. Anonymous19 July 2024 at 20:29

    The way you weave storytelling into your posts is captivating. I always look forward to reading more.
    backyard pod Melbourne

    ReplyDelete

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