Fresh Butterbeans….My grandmother used to spread the freshly picked butterbeans, peas and corn on sheets till we could get them all shelled or husked to keep them from going through a heat. Anyone else remember your grandmother spreading the peas and butterbeans out on sheets so the heat wouldn’t get to them before you could get them all shelled? Not only were they hard on your fingers to shell, but it was also hot back breaking work to pick those butterbeans. The butterbeans were up underneath the bottom of the plants and you really have to bend and get those as opposed to the peas that just hung on the vines and were very easy to pick. My fingers would be so sore from shelling those butterbeans, but it was worth every ache and pain when you stuck your feet under her dinner table.
When we had enough shelled for a “mess”, which is what granny called them, then she would put the butterbeans on to cook with some country ham, salt pork or side meat. She would throw a few pods of okra in at the end of the cooking so the butterbeans wouldn’t get slimy. She would fry up a couple of chickens along with some rice and gravy made off of the chicken drippings and some fresh cream corn that she cut off the cob. She would always have some country ham, fat back or side meat cooked too along with buttermilk biscuits and Lacey cornbread. She would have sliced tomatoes, cucumbers and some sliced onions. Add a glass of her sweet tea to that and it was the best eating that you could possibly get anywhere. Much better than any expensive steak house meal any day.❤️ Then she would offer us some homemade biscuit pie that she made from left over biscuits from the day before. It had coconut in it and it was so good. ❤️
#freshpeas #butterbeans #nostalgia