In the Northern California region where I taught and still have a winter home, you cannot go out on New Years Day and buy canned black-eyed peas to have with the day’s supper. The supermarkets are open but the shelves are sold out of black-eyed peas, as I learned to my sorrow this afternoon.
Eating black-eyed peas on New Years Day is a custom among a significant group of North Americans, many of them with southern roots. Doing so is supposed to bring the eater good luck during the year. I doubt many believe the superstition but follow the tradition because it is like turkey on Thanksgiving, just what one does.
If you find some, they are nasty - taste like cardboard - heated up straight out of the can. They need bacon grease, plus onion and garlic powder and even so can be an acquired taste, albeit one I like.
I know of this custom but apparently people who make stocking decisions for markets don’t. Getting a couple of extra cases for the year end would make sense, just like stocking up on canned pumpkin or cranberry sauce. Go figure....
