We’re taking a pounding from the ol’ learning curve. I’m not sure gardening/farming is a mostly-intuitive process. For us, it’s been a savage procession of lessons in just how disconnected from the real sources of our food supply Jack and I have been all these years.
Still, there is some headway. So far, this year’s attempt to plant some cowpeas and snap beans has met with a measure of success. I say that until tomorrow morning finds me, like this morning, surveying the small plot and muttering under my breath at the dug-up places in the garden. My carefully-watered soil seems to have become a nocturnal armadillo playground. But we still try to peacefully co-exist. Every night, they root around for fat, juicy subterranean treasures in our soil, and every morning I kick the mulch layer back into place and note the mounting cowpea casualties.
That said, there still seem to be plenty of survivors…so far. This morning, I thinned a few in the areas where we’d used a hand-sowing broadcast method of seeding. There were more clumps of unevenly-distributed plants in those sections, and they needed some breathing room.
There seems to be a healthy root system to these thinnings, and next time I’ll harvest the thinnings with scissors and leave the roots undisturbed. I’ll also plant my rows with greater care, since the ones that are doing best seem to be the ones I planted a seed at a time in double rows rather than by broadcasting over a larger area.
We planted pink-eye purple hull peas this year as our choice of cowpea, since that’s the variety I remember most from my childhood. We generically called them black-eyed peas, but after eating real black-eyed peas in my adulthood, I found they were two different things. But they, like many other varieties, both fall into the category of plant termed Cowpea.
Since we’re new to a lot of this, we were interested to find that cowpeas have a long history of use as animal fodder, and many times were used primarily for that, despite their usefulness as human food. I found some references that stated that cowpeas had a wide use by landowners on colonial U.S. farms as animal fodder, and that servants and slaves oftentimes utilized the peas and the greens as nourishing foods for themselves. A book on agriculture from about a hundred years ago stated that cow pea leaf fodder, when dried as a hay, is on par with the nutrition of alfalfa hay, which really surprised me. I’m not sure of any recent studies that confirm this, but it interests me since cowpeas grow really well in hot climates and can withstand drought quite well.
In fact, cowpeas’ climate adaptability to heat, humidity, and drought is known worldwide, and they are cultivated by many indigenous cultures. Further investigation showed that cowpeas and the plant leaves have been used throughout time, up to the present-day, on the African continent as a staple good in nutritious traditional foods. It seems that not only cowpeas, but other plant foods such as okra, tropical pumpkins, and sweet potatoes enjoyed related histories and adaptability in similar climate conditions, and were transported as valued food sources during population shifts, immigrations, diaspora, and slaveship crossings in times past.
The interesting similarity among some of these foods is that many of them have been viewed in general as subsistence foods rather than preferred ones. This is the case with maize/corn, which in some cultures is viewed as an animal feed rather than a human one, in contrast to other areas where it’s a staple around which most meals are built. Sweet potatoes and okra often have been viewed as a poor man’s food in the U.S., and this has been the case with the cowpea as well.
Had I found none of these things, I love me some purple hulls simply because of the taste. Part of my childhood was spent in Mississippi, and we ate from a garden where purple hull peas found their way to the dinnerplate regularly, accompanied with cornbread and sliced garden tomatoes.
What I did NOT know is that all the while, we could have been harvesting the leaves, too.
I LOVE finding plants with multiple uses! In only minutes on the internet, I found that the leaves of cowpea plants are highly nutritious, and are responsible for fending off malnutrition and starvation in areas of the world where mass production of grains or other large agriculture are not practical or need rotation or intercropping. Cowpeas can be grown in many cultures as a backyard garden plot, and the greens are actually more packed with nutrition than even the peas themselves. All the edible parts of the plants must be cooked first, for human consumption…they are not edible raw.
Harvesting the leaves can be done in stages. It seems the preferable leaves to pick are the small ones, and the growth tips, but later in the growth cycle the tougher, mature leaves can also be harvested and processed a bit differently. The young leaves are either sauteed or boiled, often used as an ingredient in traditional vegetable dishes, soups, and porridges. The older leaves are tougher, and are boiled then dehydrated by drying in the sun, then crumbled or powdered and stored as an ingredient to add protein to traditional dishes. This chart shows the high protein ranking of cowpea greens compared to other vegetarian foods.
Here is a picture of the trimmed leaves and tips of the cowpea greens I had thinned. I briefly sauteed them in a teaspoon of olive oil with a pinch of sea salt for my first trial taste-testing. I couldn’t find a lot of instructions on the correct way to cook the greens, but some accounts said they are cooked similarly to spinach. Since I sautee my spinach this way, I tried these greens in like manner.
Here they are sauteed. Tasting them proved them to be similar to spinach, but without a spinachy flavor. Their flavor was pleasant, with a slight bitterness that was not unpleasant. It was similar to the slight bitterness present in a mesclum lettuce mix, several flavors in combination. If these greens had not been tender, I would have fixed them as I would fix mature collard, kale, or turnips greens, by boiling them and them simmering them on low until tender.
My conclusion about the cooked leaves at this point is that I would definately eat these again. They are actually more pleasant eating than spinach, at least to my palate. I love spinach, but hate the oxalic acid’s effect afterwards. These had no after-effects and were as enjoyable to me as kale or chard, which I really like.
Cowpea greens are more than a novelty find…they are a viable answer to malnutrition and hunger in many parts of the world. I was pleased to find that so many groups are studying and promoting these as practical solutions, and I thought about the possibilities for our own small garden plot. These are a good crop to use in rotation with other crops because they make nitrogen available. They are good in humidity, heat and drought. They can be used as a cover crop or as green manure if incorporated back into the soil at the flowering stage.
The plants can be grown for their greens alone, and harvested in stages. Or they can be grown for their peas, which can be dried or cooked right off the vine, or even the immature pods cooked as you would snap beans. The pods of the purple hull peas can be boiled and made into a grape-type jelly, too!
In a climate where insects have gobbled down nearly every green I’ve managed to grow, these leaves may be one of our answers to how to include garden greens into our meals during the hottest months. And that’s really good news for us during these times. I love finding protein-rich nutritious foods that require little input or fuss…or expense.
We’ll keep experimenting with ways to use these leaves as greens at mealtime..we’ve just touched on the possibilities. I’m just really pleased with the outcome of this one, and this is leading us to look more and more into other plants with dual uses and edible leaves!
Excellent post and definitely something to pop into the mental reference book for future use. I’m not a fan of the cowpea family for taste. In fact, as a kid I’d eat anything except those and cheese. Go figure. But I do love green things and this is a very nice nutritional boost for spring!
Enjoyed reading this. Living in the south we plant a type of cow pea every year. I have a question though is a crowder pea a cow pea? They seem to use the name interchangeably here. I knew the leaves were used as hay and fodder but didn’t know they were eaten by humans. Love to learn something new.Thanks
Fascinating. I think you’ve hit on a winner crop!
We don’t tend to grow cowpeas in New England–I don’t know if our climate’s wrong or if they’re just not on the Yankee radar but now I’m going to have to look. I’ve recently learned that “English” peas and snow peas have more edible parts than I’d ever thought. That makes them much more attractive for my smallish garden. I love fresh peas, but they take up a lot of room in proportion to the harvest of peas. If I can eat the greens, too, though…much more food for the work.
I am trying these this year too! However…I decided to plant them later (of course you are more south than me) to fill in where I remove the lettuce and spinach. I am going for beans entirely but I will try the tops at least once since you recommend it. Never heard of that. Thanks for the heads up.
Also…something for you that we are trying this year. Fava beans. We are going to try those this fall/winter. They seem to be similar to cowpeas in that you can eat the bean and the bud (so to speak). They also pack more nitrogen into the soil than any other plant AND they are also used for livestock fodder. Hey–if the cow can eat it then I guess we probably can too 🙂
Monica
Does the literature say why they are not edible raw? I’m surprised given that pea greens can be eaten raw and most bean sprouts are ok raw.
ChristyACB, there are a lot of greens I’m not partial to as for flavor, but a lot of that was from memory when growing up, too..for some reason one of my relatives boiled the daylights out of every vegetable and always added sugar (not my favorite way to eat most of them). I’m not crazy about the flavor of some of the cowpea family but really would like to explore the differences since they have so many benefits. But purple hulls…I love! 🙂 I’m with you on needing some early green nutrition 🙂
Christy, here’s a link I found showing the different types http://www.victoryseeds.com/catalog/vegetable/peas/peas_southern.html
It looks like crowders are one of the four types of cowpea, and purple hulls fall under the black-eye type. My former MIL was a fantastic southern cook and would prepare crowders frequently for her boys. It was one of their favorite meals…crowders, greens (collards, turnip, kale etc), cornbread, and homemade mac ‘n cheese.
Safira, I’m not sure of the growing range, but I do know they will tolerate a lot of punishment and heat. It’s interesting…I was looking at some George Washington Carver information about multiple uses of “poor man” crops and sometimes there were ways to extend their range by selecting a certain variety that had fewer days till harvest…not sure if cowpeas have that equivalent, but it might be worth a look? 🙂
Monica, woo, you’re growing purple hulls this year? Are you guys already up in the high 80s? We’re having weird weather this year…not a single drop of rain!! And some days it’s hot as heck and others it’s still springlike (not typical for here). We have rigid watering restrictions and ALL my watering is HAND watering EVERY day. The weeds are already getting ahead of me since my free time is spent hand watering rather than being able to set out a sprinkler on a timer (we dont have a drip or soaker system yet…$$$). I have never tried favas and wasnt aware of their multiple uses, but that figures…so many plants are, I’m finding! I still have pigeon peas and madagascar beans, etc, from ECHO, to put in the ground when I can, though I don’t care for the taste of pigeon peas at all. We’ll have to compare notes on which of all these we love the taste of and which the animals (yours) prefer 🙂 BTW I still owe you some malangas. Jack sort-of-accidentally killed off most of ours and we’re late getting your package in the mail! 🙂
Howling Duck…I’m sure I can read up on it further for the exact Why, but it was specific about their being inedible unless cooked. I’m not sure about the microgreens/sprouts…maybe they are? (I won’t try them till I’m sure, though) I do know the actual cowpea can be dried and ground into flour, but even that is eventually cooked. Now you have me wanting to know the answer…I’ll be looking it up! 🙂
Thanks, everyone, for the wonderful feedback! 🙂
P.S. I also forgot to mention that my favorite way to eat purple hull peas, aside from the great greens, is to pressure cook them, or home-canned. Ok, now I’m hungry…
I am growing Calico Crowder (Pole Cat) this season, will have to try steaming the young shoots. I need some hot weather greens to replace lettuce and spinach.
Will have to try the purple hull this season. I grew fava beans last year and enjoyed the eating the raw bean while they were young. I think I”ll plant some in a window box for the young shoots.
Don’t worry about the malangas. I can wait…even until next year 🙂
Actually we’ve had a very wet spring. I still have spinach and chard growing very well. Leaps and bounds. It is warmer…but not hot. I am glad– very different from last year and definitely the year before when we had the drought so badly. Here’s were I’ll sound old(er): I remember when……the weather used to be somewhat predictable. Or as predictable as weather can be 😀 hehehe
Or is that just my imagination??
Thanks for this post! Last fall was my first foray into the cowpea family. In Phoenix you can imagine, we have a need for heat tolerant crops. I’ve found a few native varieties that do wonderfully and now I know I can eat the leaves too, yay!
does anyone have a recipe for canning pink eye purple hull peas? we usually blanch and freeze but are running out of freezer space.
thanks!
Cherae, I don’t have a pressure canner as yet, but I think my mom used the Ball Blue book or canning instructions from the county extension service and just canned them in the pressure canner with nothing but some salt added. For proper canning times, you can refer to black-eyed peas or other cowpea since they’re so similar. I do know it’s one of the few foods I think tastes better homecanned than even fresh. Hope that helps? 🙂
Robbyn
Question: How do you determine if some of the leaves are young and some are old? How old is old? Is it by color? By longevity? By size? Do you really need to boil and dry the ‘older’ leaves? What if you just steamed everything? Many thanks for any replies!!!
We eat cow pea greens every week. They are growing wonderfully well in our 4 ft by 4 ft patch of garden in the heart of DC. My husband is from Kenya and has eaten them all his life. We get enough from that patch for greens for at least 2 to 3 days a week. Last year, they lasted until the second frost.
We brown onions, add some tomato, and put in the greens and a little water. Cook until ‘done’. Add salt to taste.
Wonderful! What type of cowpea do you plant and how mature do you allow the plant to get before harvesting the leaves each time? I’d love to know any other ways you use them …the onions and tomatoes with it sound great! Do you use any other greens such as pumpkin or okra, ever? Thanks so much for sharing! 🙂
My mom was gifted a large bag of Iron and Clay Cowpeas this morning. She promptly handed me the bag and asked… are these edible? I’m so glad to find your blog. She is fond of eating “weeds” while working the gardens… now she knows not to eat these raw.
…. can’t wait to read more of your posts!
I recently moved to Kenya, Africa where I was introduced to cowpeas as a green vegetable. Since then I’ve been growing them in my garden here. You can “prune’ your cowpeas for the greens, just make sure you leave a few leaf-buds on the stem, and they will continue to grow. We saute them with tomatoes and onions and let them cook down until tender. (Adding a pinch of baking soda while cooking helps them cook faster and stay tender.)
hi…. thank you so much for this great information. i experimented growing a few packets this year, and they did so well.. definitely growing more next year.
looking up more i found on the purdue university website.. definitions of the different types.. like what crowder is… http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/afcm/cowpea.html
HI – Thanks for stopping by. I have been growing cowpeas for a few years. My neighbors (who also call them zipper peas) brought the seeds with them from Florida (I am in So Texas). They do very well for me in the hot summer here. I have never eaten the greens through ( shell them and eat the peas). It sounds like you had some good luck with your plants. Are you growing them for the peas or the green?
hey, thanks for the blog post! i found it interesting and helpful. i am working on developing a learning garden in a small community in rwanda and have been growing cowpeas with little experience with them or their uses. This post helped! Thanks…. will surely follow up on the rest of your dabblings!