Black Eyed Peas Gone Suburbs

I've never been much of a legume kinda' girl.  It takes way more effort than I find necessary to decide in advance what I'm cooking the next day (that in itself would be a miracle), soak overnight and cook for hours.  I might be able to conger up the needed energy if the result were something from the Chocolate Family, but for some black eyed peas...nope.

Well, who would have known--black eyed peas don't come from a BAG!!!  They actually grow on a pretty little vining plant.   They don't need soaking, they don't need to cook for hours, and the best part....I've never tasted a black eyed pea like this in my life!!   They are divine and you don't need a farm to grow them..just a POT!!  They even end up being pretty enough to put in the front yard as an ornamental!!!  Believe it or not, this pot is actually one of the things I could put in my front yard and look normal, and it's in my back yard...I know.

Here's how to do it...

What you need....

• The biggest pot you can get your hands on (mine is a 5 gallon)

• Organic soil to fill your pot (we just use soil from our compost bin, but Black Cow would work perfect)

• A tomato cage
  

• Black Eyed Pea seeds (you can buy a package or just grab some dried peas from you pantry)

• Organic Fertilizer (any brand for veggies will do, we use Miracle Gro for planting and our own compost bi-weekly once the seeds sprout)

You can get all of this at your local home improvement store in the gardening section.

Fill your pot with soil up to about 6" from the top of the pot.  Throw a handful of of fertilizer on top and mix it in to the first 6" or so of soil.  Make little holes for your seeds about 1/2" down (plant 2 seeds per gallon of soil evenly spaced out).  Place your seeds in the holes and cover with soil.  Using a light mist from the hose, wet your soil down.

I put our tomato cage into the pot upside-down.  You can use any shape cage you want...I just like the way this one looks and it was sitting around doing nothing in our yard.  We leaned a little lattice up behind the plant for any extra spill over, but it's not necessary.  Make sure you put your pot in an area that gets direct sun for at least 5-6 hours a day.  Water them on a daily basis until it cools down a little, then every other day is fine. You should have little seedlings pop up in less than a week.  My plants were two weeks old in the above Labor Day pic.      

This is what they look like today.

We're already starting to get little buds on the plants...won't be long before we have peas.

I can taste them already!!