| Sea Island red pea | |
|---|---|
 Diversity among Sea Island red pea phenotypes displayed. | |
| Species | Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp. |
| Cultivar group | 'Unguiculata' |
| Cultivar | Sea Island red pea |
| Marketing names | Sapelo island red peas, Sapelo red pea and Geechee red peas |
| Origin | Sapelo Island and the Sea Islands |
Sea Island red pea is an heirloom landrace of cowpea from the Gullah corridor of the Sea Islands. They are an integral part of Gullah cuisine and have been listed on the Ark of Taste. [1]
The centre of diversity of the cultivated cowpea is West Africa, leading an early consensus that this is the likely centre of origin and place of early domestication. [2] Charred remains of cowpeas have been found in rock shelters located in Central Ghana dating to the 2nd millennium BCE. [3] By the 17th century cowpeas began to be cultivated in the New World via the Trans-Atlantic slave trade; being used as slave food and provisions. [4] [2]
Sea Island red peas came to the Sea Islands from the Mende of modern Sierra Leone, where from 1750 to 1775, 50,000 enslaved Sub-Saharan Africans, predecessors to the Gullah, were kidnapped. [5] They were mainly abducted from "Rice Coast", between modern Guinea and Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone and Liberia, due to their expertise and experience in the cultivation of Carolina gold rice. [6]
Due to lack of social upward mobility many Gullah have left their traditional life in search of better opportunities. [7] This has led to the loss of many speakers of the Gullah language, and along with years of Gullah being displaced and forcefully extracted from their cultural homeland due to massive resorts and golf courses being constructed, the Sea Island red pea has been viewed as a tool that can be used to preserve their culture into modernity. [8] [9]
The Sea Island red pea, as a landrace, tends to have variations in its coloration and size of its seed coat. [10]
They should be sown prior to frost, roughly late May and mid-July and climb resulting in the use of a trellis, domestically. They should be sown about 1in deep spacing roughly 4in apart. They tolerate bad soil and replenish nitrogen in the soil. To mitigate chances of cross-pollination they should be separated by at least 20 ft from other cowpea varieties. Viable seeds should be saved when the pods are dry and crisp. [11]
They may be used in a similar manner to the cowpea or black-eyed pea to make hoppin' John, acarajé, or waakye. American chef Sean Brock claims that traditionally, hoppin' John would have been made with Carolina Gold rice and Sea Island red peas. He has worked with farmers to re-introduce these varieties to the market place. [12]
Traditionally, Gullah would prepare the peas by adding them to perloo [13] or by making red peas and rice. [14] [15]
A legume is a plant in the family Fabaceae, or the fruit or seed of such a plant. When used as a dry grain, the seed is also called a pulse. Legumes are grown agriculturally, primarily for human consumption, for livestock forage and silage, and as soil-enhancing green manure. Well-known legumes include beans, soybeans, chickpeas, peanuts, lentils, lupins, grass peas, mesquite, carob, tamarind, alfalfa, and clover. Legumes produce a botanically unique type of fruit – a simple dry fruit that develops from a simple carpel and usually dehisces on two sides.
The black-eyed pea or black-eyed bean is a legume grown around the world for its medium-sized, edible bean. It is a subspecies of the cowpea, an Old World plant domesticated in Africa, and is sometimes simply called a cowpea.
The cowpea is an annual herbaceous legume from the genus Vigna. Its tolerance for sandy soil and low rainfall have made it an important crop in the semiarid regions across Africa and Asia. It requires very few inputs, as the plant's root nodules are able to fix atmospheric nitrogen, making it a valuable crop for resource-poor farmers and well-suited to intercropping with other crops. The whole plant is used as forage for animals, with its use as cattle feed likely responsible for its name.
Vigna is a genus of plants in the legume family, Fabaceae, with a pantropical distribution. It includes some well-known cultivated species, including many types of beans. Some are former members of the genus Phaseolus. According to Hortus Third, Vigna differs from Phaseolus in biochemistry and pollen structure, and in details of the style and stipules.
Vigna subterranea is a member of the family Fabaceae. Its name is derived from the Bambara tribe. The plant originated in West Africa. As a food and source of income, the Bambara groundnut is considered to be the third most important leguminous crop in those African countries where it is grown, after peanut and cowpea. The crop is mainly cultivated, sold and processed by women, and is, thus, particularly valuable for female subsistence farmers.
The Gullah are an African American ethnic group who predominantly live in the Lowcountry region of the U.S. states of South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida within the coastal plain and the Sea Islands. Their language and culture have preserved a significant influence of Africanisms as a result of their historical geographic isolation and the community's relation to their shared history and identity.
Vigna umbellata, previously Phaseolus calcaratus, is a warm-season annual vine legume with yellow flowers and small edible beans. It is commonly called ricebean or rice bean. To date, it is little known, little researched and little exploited. It is regarded as a minor food and fodder crop and is often grown as intercrop or mixed crop with maize, sorghum or cowpea, as well as a sole crop in the uplands, on a very limited area. Like the other Asiatic Vigna species, ricebean is a fairly short-lived warm-season annual. Grown mainly as a dried pulse, it is also important as a fodder, a green manure and a vegetable. Ricebean is most widely grown as an intercrop, particularly of maize, throughout Indo-China and extending into southern China, India, Nepal and Bangladesh. In the past it was widely grown as lowland crop on residual soil water after the harvest of long-season rice, but it has been displaced to a great extent where shorter duration rice varieties are grown. Ricebean grows well on a range of soils. It establishes rapidly and has the potential to produce large amounts of nutritious animal fodder and high quality grain.
The asparagus bean is a legume cultivated for its edible green pods containing immature seeds, like the green bean. It is also known as: yardlong bean, pea bean, long-podded cowpea, Chinese long bean, snake bean, bodi, and bora. Despite the common name of "yardlong", the pods are actually only about half a yard long, so the subspecies name sesquipedalis is a more accurate approximation.
Rice and beans, or beans and rice, is a category of dishes from many cultures around the world, whereby the staple foods of rice and beans are combined in some manner. The grain and legume combination provides several important nutrients and many calories, and both foods are widely available. The beans are usually seasoned, while the rice may be plain or seasoned. The two components may be mixed together, separated on the plate, or served separately.
Hoppin' John, also known as Carolina peas and rice, is a peas and rice dish served in the Southern United States. It is made with cowpeas and rice, chopped onion, and sliced bacon, seasoned with salt. Some recipes use ham hock, fatback, country sausage, or smoked turkey parts instead of bacon. A few use green peppers or vinegar and spices. Smaller than black-eyed peas, field peas are used in the South Carolina Lowcountry and coastal Georgia; black-eyed peas are the norm elsewhere.
Kharif crops, also known as monsoon crops or autumn crops, are domesticated plants that are cultivated and harvested in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh during the Indian subcontinent's monsoon season, which lasts from June to November depending on the area. Monsoon rains may begin as early as May in some parts of the Indian subcontinent, and crops are generally harvested from the third week of September to October. Rice, maize, and cotton are some of the major Kharif crops in India. Unlike the Rabi crops, which are grown in the winter, the kharif crops require good rainfall.
The Dixie Lee Pea is an heirloom variety of cowpea popular in the Carolinas, although prevalent throughout most of the American south.
Vigna marina is a prostrate, creeping vine and a perennial plant. Also known as the beach pea, nanea, and notched cowpea, it is a species of legume in the family Fabaceae.
Pea beans are several types of common food plants producing beans:
Callosobruchus is a genus of beetles in the family Chrysomelidae, the leaf beetles. It is in the subfamily Bruchinae, the bean weevils. Many beetles in the genus are well known as economically important pests that infest stored foodstuffs.
Vigna angularis, also known as the red bean, or red mung bean, adzuki bean(Japanese: 小豆, azuki, Uncommon アヅキ, adzuki), azuki bean, aduki bean, is an annual vine widely cultivated throughout East Asia for its small bean. The cultivars most familiar in East Asia have a uniform red color, but there are also white, black, gray, and variously mottled varieties.
The pigeon pea is a perennial legume from the family Fabaceae native to the Old World. The pigeon pea is widely cultivated in tropical and semitropical regions around the world, being commonly consumed in South Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.
Carolina Gold rice is a variety of African rice first popularized in South Carolina, USA in the 1780s. It is named for the golden color of its unhulled grains.
Arroz de fríjol cabecita negra is a rice-based dish from the Caribbean Coast of Colombia that utilizes black-eyed peas as the legume, differing from other rice dishes that are usually prepared with different legumes such as beans, peas, lentils, and Pigeon peas.