Arkansas Blog

Been watching my own personal tiller racing here in Wilburn. Gave wife full operating privileges on it. Basically, said it's yours. Took her awhile to get the hang of hanging on!

Holy cow! She must have had a mouthful of dirt after that run.

We don't get farm fresh purple hull peas up here (I would pay a pretty penny for a mess of um)... It's one of the few things I miss most about southern AR summers.

Looks too dangerous to me, but I'm glad they found a way to keep Dr. Tiller's memory alive down there in Emerson, wherever that is.

Never heard of Emerson or Wilburn, I'm thinking there is a lot I don't know about my state......
when it was time to study state history I was in Pennsylvania so know all about William Penn,
the Quakers, Amish...so on
Eureka we don't find many/any fresh p.hull or butter beans down here either, once in awhile
I'll find p. hull, already hulled, in plastic baggies but that takes the magic out of sitting and
rocking, shelling away and when you are done trying to wash the purple off your fingers.
When I was a kid we lived on fresh peas, beans, okra, corn on cob and stewed new potatoes
swimming in thick white sauce with lots of, from the churn, butter.
Ohhhhhhhhhhh my G;ma, mom and aunts could make rocks taste good.

It was fun.

The woman who ran that errant tiller was just fine -- more laughing out of shock than shaken. Unfortunately, the tiller stalled up after that round. I waited around another 45 minutes, but it hadn't been fixed, and the heat was going to eat me.

On bluename (or through the toplink) more about the food at the festival at Eat Arkansas. I am taking a Vitamin I and going to bed!

Every once in a long while I find fresh "Lady Peas" aka "White Acre Peas" a tiny version of the field pea and probably the most delicate and flavorful at a farmers market or roadside stand. If you ever find them, buy them and try them (and let me know where you found them). They have a reputation, because of size, to be hard to shell. That is not true.

They are more than worth the effort, simmered in water with a touch of butter and piece of fatback for seasoning. It made me understand why my Mother and Father continued to have several "meatless/wheatless" meals a week even after the war that inspired them ended and the Depression that made them a meal of survival was over.

Try it sometime. Cornbread with ladypeas (or field peas) and either blackeyed peas or purple hulls or limas, and turnip, mustard or mixed greens. True vegetarians and vegans will turn their nose up at the fatback and butter, but I am not as rigid and it tastes great.

Oops! the Clik is a source for the lady pea seeds that are current out.

Lady peas are one of the finest foods evah... Used to buy them at LR farmers market, but they sold out very fast. I was daydreaming about them just this afternoon.

Thanks for the seed link, dot.

Several years ago, I bought lady pea seeds at Shell Ross in Pine Bluff, but since I've been out of heavy duty gardening I haven't checked lately. If you're ever down in this part of the state, you might check them out. Or call and ask. If you find any, stock up. Bean and pea seed will remain viable for years.
Now as to the tiller race -- how abouts a play by play for those of us who have d-i-a-l-u-p?

>>We don't get farm fresh purple hull peas up here (I would pay a pretty penny for a mess of um)<<

ES, find you way over to Fayetteville Farmers Market next month and you will find plenty of purple hull peas. You can buy them by the half or full bushel. There used to be a complimentary pea hulling machine for patrons to use. I suggest getting there early, like 7-7:30. They are very popular.

Oops. Fay. Farmers Market is open on Tue, Thur and Saturday, and now on Sundays at the new
Botanical Gardens on 265 (Crossover Road).

Jazzy, You said
"I'm thinking there is a lot I don't know about my state"

For an entertaining read about Arkansas, the Butler Center, part of CALS, has put together this on-line reference. There's still a lot of gaps - people are invited to write, suggest a topic or a resource person.

http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/

Jazzy, Wilburn is located on Highway 110 between Pangburn and Heber Springs. Actually, we live in what use to be called Hiram. The local one room church here used to be a school.

We're within walking distance of what is called Hiram Bluff. They built a hydro-electric dam on Big Creek at the bottom of the bluff back in the early 1900's. First big flow in the creek, and the dam was gone. Lot of history in the rural areas of our state.

No peas up here to keep the thread on track.

Can Arkansas get any stupider than this?

"Can Arkansas get any stupider than this?" Yeah. We keep electing Markie and Blankie.

"Can Arkansas get any stupider than this?"
Yeah... By adding condescending posts to Internet forums.

Places like Emerson are dying off every day. I think there are a fair share of AT posters who have no problem with that... Folks who think everyone from the sticks should move to the city and get with the program. However, Emerson -- population 345 -- isn't going away. They're building a new high school (to be shared by other small towns, of course)... And they get together every June to celebrate Purple Hull Peas. The folks down there are friendly and they know you by name. I don't see *anything* stupid about that.

What cozmosis said.

Thanks, Doigotta. I try when I'm up that way.

For video interviews of people who made some Arkansas history, check out the Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History. The web sit (http://libinfo.uark.edu/SpecialCollections/pryorcenter/) also at clicky, is new but already awesome. Go there and listen to Law Professor Al Witte spin some great yarns, or Dale Hawkins explain how he got that rockabilly sound in the studio. Check back often. The staff is working hard and it shows. Thanks to David and Barb Pryor for funding this effort.