Pass the Crowder peas, please!

When he was growing up “down on the farm” in rural Washington County in “Middle Georgia,” Athens (Ga.) Banner-Herald columnist Loran Smith wrote: 

“There was nothing like a summertime vegetable plate at noon, which we called ‘dinner.’ Leftovers were set out for the evening meal, ‘supper.’”

“My favorite, when it came to peas, was Crowder peas,” he said.

 

Smith, who is now 85, remembers rising “early in the morning and taking a galvanized tub out to the pea patch and pickin’ a ‘mess of Crowder peas.’”

“We’d all sit around on the back porch, click on the “static afflicted radio” and let Hank Williams and Eddy Arnold help us shell those Crowders in time for dinner.”

Eddy Arnold

Smith still savors the sight of seeing “those Crowder peas dripping with rich, dark potlikker as they were dipped into a serving bowl for the family table.”

Potlikker is the Southern term for “the juice that remains in a pot after greens or other vegetables are boiled with proper seasoning, such as salt fat pork,” he said. “Delicious, invigorating and soul-and-body sustaining.”

A few years ago, Loran Smith interviewed fellow Georgian Patricia Maxwell on the subject of Crowder peas. She is a descendant of Lt. Col. John Terrell Crowder of Monroe County, Ga. He fought in the Civil War with Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.

Col. Crowder’s land was on the Little Towaliga River. He was a vintner as well as the Crowder pea inventor, Maxwell has claimed. Maybe true, maybe not so much. A good story, nonetheless.

 

“Crowder peas, butterbeans, iced tea and a nap – the good things in life. Often, we don’t appreciate them when we are young,” Smith wrote.

(College football fans may recognize Loran Smith. He has served nearly 50 years as a sideline reporter and radio commentator for the University of Georgia Bulldogs.)

 

For southern Crowder peas in a can, consider Bush’s. The family-owned company was formed in 1908 in Chestnut Hill, Tenn., near the French Broad River in the Smoky Mountains.

 

Andrew Jackson (A. J.) Bush was born in 1867. A. J. graduated from Carson-Newman College in Jefferson City, Tenn., and returned home to Chestnut Hill to become a school teacher.

 

He and his wife, Sallie, raised six children. They established the A. J. Bush & Company General Store in 1896 to bring in additional income.

In the early 1900s, A. J. began construction of a textile hosiery mill. When word of his plans made their way to the Stokely Brothers Tomato Cannery in Newport, Tenn., about 10 miles east of Chestnut Hill, the four Stokley boys approached A. J. with an offer.

If he would provide the building and staff, the Stokely brothers would provide the canning equipment to open a cannery instead of a hosiery factory. A. J. agreed, and the new cannery opened in 1904.

In 1908, A. J. bought out the Stokely brothers’ interest and formed a new partnership with his two eldest sons, Fred and Claude, known as Bush Brothers & Company.

Soon thereafter, Bush added blackberries, peaches, hominy and green beans, products grown locally in Tennessee.

Fred Bush became Bush’s president in 1931, “inheriting the difficult task of shepherding Bush Brothers through the Great Depression. World War II. The great postwar economic expansion that followed fueled Bush’s transformation into a diversified food processor.”

 

Committed to introducing new products, Bush’s positioned itself in 1952 “Bush’s Best,” targeting its brands as “a convenience food for busy cooks.”

 

Crowder peas were added to the product line in the mid-1950s, and now the company boasts: “Our Crowder peas are always crowd-pleasers!”

Crowder peas are also available in the frozen food section: 

 

 

Another leading brand is show below:

Some sources say this was the favorite of Elvis Pressley, who consumed vast quantities of Crowders. 

His favorite recipe was a simple one. 

Add onions, butter and water. Heat and dig in.