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

Post a Comment

Popular With Other Visitors

Writing Opposite Poems

Image
 O pp o s ite  P oem s In his book, ' How To Write Poetry,'  Paul Janeczko presents the idea of opposite poems. Paul suggests they could also be referred to as antonym poems. This is wordplay and it's fun to try. Here are some examples Paul provides to help us see very clearly how these short little poems work. I think the opposite of chair Is sitting down with nothing there What is the opposite of kind? A goat that butts you from behind Paul Janeczko You will  notice the poems are written in rhyming couplets. They can be extended so long as you remember to write in couplets. Paul shows us how this is done. What is the opposite of new? Stale gum that's hard to chew A hot-dog roll as hard as rock Or a soiled and smelly forgotten sock You might notice that some of Paul's opposite Poems begin with a question. The remainder of the poem answer the question posed. Opposite poems are a challenge, but it is a challenge worth trying. Not eve...
Read more

Writing About Reading - Reading Reflection Journals:

Image
UPDATED February 2022 Writing in response to literature can be a great way for students to organize their thoughts, explore what they think, and generate ideas. One of the strengths of writing in journals is that it allows students to capture all of those great ideas that generally float off into the air during the discussion.  Journal writing can also become drudgery if students are asked to write too often, given little choice or inspiration in what to write, or if they simply don't have anything to say. While some students eagerly share their impressions about selections they have read in class discussions, others are less comfortable and keep their thoughts to themselves. In an effort to encourage all students to think more about what they read and confidently share their observations and opinions, some teachers are turning to the reading reflection journal and are gaining insights they never anticipated.  The Value of Reflection Journals   Journals assist teachers...
Read more

Learning How to 'Zoom In' When Writing

Image
It is important for young writers to understand that not all parts of a story are equal. There are parts through which a writer moves quickly, and important parts where the writer slows down and lingers a while. This is where the writer might intensify the action or reveal the character’s reactions in greater detail. Young writers need to know that this is a deliberate strategy on the part of the author. The author consciously zooms in. The writer uses a magnifying glass to view a part of the story more closely; to focus on a moment and to slow down time. When an important part of the story is enlarged upon, it   is a signal to the reader, that this part of the story is important. The strategy of ‘zooming in’ goes by many names: ‘exploding a moment’ ‘magnifying a moment’, ‘hotspot’ ‘snapshot’, ‘adding detail’ or ‘slowing the action.’  What ever the name, the idea is the same. The author writes in a way that expands a significant part of the story with the intentio...
Read more

Slice Of Life Story-The Trials Of A Left Handed Writer

Image
Amazingly I learnt to write using my left hand. An achievement against the prevailing beliefs of the day. My very first teacher saw it as her mission in life to ‘fix’ the poor, wretched little boy suffering from what she clearly diagnosed as left handed disease. She must have thought, 'This child must be re formatted! If he remains left handed he will be forever condemned to writing in a scrawl that no one will be able to read. Ugly hand, ugly hand.' ...They tried to say it couldn't be done, it mustn't be done. They took the pencil out of my left hand and placed it in my right hand. It felt unnatural. It felt weird. It was not right. More to the point it was not left. I was not about to conform. At least they didn't try tying my hand behind my back. Watch me I said. I may be an oddball, left handed scribbler but I am a determined oddball. I mean how boring would the world be if everyone wrote with their right hand? So I dug my toes in –and my hands to...
Read more

Answering Questions Posed by Young POETS

Image
UPDATED, May 2020 As a frequent visitor to schools I have the great pleasure of working with groups of young, enthusiastic poets and their teachers. When I arrive in a classroom, young poets are often pre-loaded with questions, and most keen to have them answered.  I try to answer as many as I can, but we frequently run out of time, and the poetry caravan moves on to the next classroom. So I am here to answer some of those questions -right here, right now. So here goes: When you were little did you love writing? The short answer is yes. I have always enjoyed words and language. I can't recall a time when I wasn't doing some kind of writing. When did you write your first poetry book? I have had poems published over the years, but it wasn't until 2014 that I had an entire book of poems (an anthology) published. When I looked back through all my notebooks I realized I had hundreds of poems from which to choose. So, 'Searching For Hen's Teeth-Poetry From The ...
Read more