Pictured above: The Legendary Red Ripper Pea grown and shelled by Johnny McNair
Welcome back to our weekly farm blog, chefs!
We have just discovered something exceedingly special growing in the sandy soils of Gable, South Carolina. That is the Red Ripper pea. A old southern heirloom cowpea that was once prized in the south, particularly South Carolina, sharing the same ancestry and cultural significance as the famous Sea Island Red pea but has been widely forgotten about. I am eager to share the story of the incredible pea so I now would like to direct you to the highlights section of this blog where you will find my piece on one of the south's most important crops of the 1800s and 1900s. The Red Ripper pea.
The Field Pea & Butterbean Standing Order Signup Offers has now been closed, but you can still get on standing order for field peas and butterbeans for the fall season if you reach out to me (Theron), it will just be without the special offers we had tied to the signup.
New this week! Clem's parsnips, hakurei turnips, watermelon radishes, daikon radishes, bolero carrots - all organic. Fresh, de-spined Prickly pears from Wild Hope. Curly mustard greens and southern Rapa greens from Dorr Farms. Fall menus are now ready to be equipped with an elite arsenal of local and regional heirloom ingredients from the best growers around with the best soils.
Note on Rosaine Little Gem Lettuce - we will resume availability next week!
COMING SOON
- Brussels sprouts
- Kohlrabi
- Rainbow Chard
- Green cabbage
- Orange beets (pending)
- Rutabagas
- Purple top turnips
- Bradford Collards
- Charleston Wakefield cabbage
- Dutch Fork pumpkins
- special heirloom strain of Candy Roaster squash only available from our farm
- persimmons
SPECIAL REQUEST: We kindly urge you to consider adding at least one of our own Bradford Farm grown crops to your weekly orders. We are working with quite a number of other farms to bring you the best access to regional flavor that we possibly can, but the heartbeat of our farm is our homegrown crops. We can’t exist without moving our own crops too. So please review the crops we offer under Bradford Farm Crops below and consider adding one or more of them. It helps us a ton.
Important Notes
-
Heirloom, ancestral Red Ripper peas
- Kale and red chard
- Prickly pears
- Southern mustard greens and rapa greens from Dorr
- Bolero carrots
- parsnips
- watermelon and rainbow daikon radishes
- Rosaine Little Gem Lettuce from Wild Hope will resume next week
⚠️ **Highlights of the week**⚠️
NEW! Red Ripper Pea - Johnny McNair
The Other Pea: The Red Ripper and the Fame It Never Got
Every family has one. The sibling who got the spotlight, the magazine covers, the seat at the best table. And somewhere behind them stands the other one, just as gifted, who got the same inheritance and none of the credit.
In the Southern pea patch, the famous one is the Sea Island red. The one who stood behind is the red ripper.
Two peas, one crossing
Both peas begin in West Africa, where farmers domesticated the cowpea more than three thousand years ago. They grew it alongside millet and sorghum, prizing it for its protein, its leaves and its gift to the soil. That knowledge crossed the Atlantic with the enslaved Africans who were forced to carry it. Seeds, and the know-how to grow and cook them, took root in the American South and became part of its cooking.
From there the two peas went separate ways. The Sea Island red settled along the coastal islands of South Carolina and Georgia, planted among the rice. The red ripper moved inland, planted alongside corn, especially in Alabama and South Carolina. Same ancestry, different ground. One system of rotation and intercropping, African in its logic, fed both.
The pea farmers trusted
The red ripper was no obscure curiosity. It goes back to at least the 1850s, when it was also known as the Tory pea, and it was a staple in Southern seed catalogs for generations afterward. By the early 1900s the catalogs were praising its toughness in drought and heat. Farmers of the era valued its heavy growth as a way to build up worn-out soil, and a look through antique catalogs from the Southeast shows it listed as a must-have.
It had vigor. In poor, tired soils where other crops sulked, the red ripper performed. It fed the family and healed the field in the same season. It was also good to eat, which is the thing that finally keeps a seed alive.
So when the story gets told that one pea, the Sea Island red, proved vigorous enough to survive into the 1900s, ask what that leaves out. The red ripper was growing in those same fields, in those same decades, and it didn't just survive. It was bought, planted and trusted. The story we've been handed names one pea and skips the one that was standing right beside it.
How the red ripper got left behind
The Sea Island red got a story, a brand and backers. When the Slow Food movement began celebrating heritage ingredients, the Sea Island red was positioned as the great survivor of Lowcountry cooking. Food historians took it up, then chefs followed the historians. Marketing and real investment carried it to the broader market and onto menus across the country.
Meanwhile the red ripper sat by and watched. Nobody was writing its story. Nobody was putting it on menus or telling cooks why it mattered. It slipped out of the conversation, then out of the catalogs, then out of most people's memory. The pea didn't get worse. It just lost its publicist.
That's the injustice. The Sea Island red earned its place, and it is not the villain here. But a pea doesn't deserve to be forgotten because someone else got the microphone first. The red ripper has the same African roots, the same Southern history and the same worth. And now, with its story nearly erased, it carries something extra: it's a pea worth rescuing.
A flavor from the past
The red ripper has been grown in the soil of this region for generations, and that matters. Johnny McNair grows it in our sandy loam, the same kind of ground it has always known. That gives us an honest picture of how this pea tasted in the past. When you eat it, you are tasting a story and a history.
Open a pod and the colors alone tell you this is no ordinary pea: brick red, clay brown, ivory cream, some speckled and spotted, and a few the color of dry-sage green.
The flavor is rich and deeply savory, with a mineral, earthy note that tastes like the soil it grew in, and a slightly sweet finish on the back of the palate. The texture is meaty and hearty and holds together instead of collapsing. For a cowpea it's a generous pea, a bit bigger than the Sea Island red, but not so big that it gets unwieldy. It cooks evenly all the way around. No blown-out skins, no hard centers.
And here is the part cooks will love: these red rippers are harvested fresh, at the green-shell stage, not dried like most Sea Island reds on the market. There is no overnight soak. You can go straight from the pod to the pot.
My first pot
I was eager to taste this legendary pea for the first time. Johnny had gifted me a one-pound bag, and I took it out of the freezer, emptied it into a colander and rinsed it. The colors lit up under the water: ivory cream, eye-popping brick red, milk chocolate brown, a few of a lively pastel green. My mouth was already watering.
I wanted the most stripped-back, traditional preparation I could manage, to taste the true flavor of this pea - getting it as close as possible to the way it was cooked and tasted in the past. I had a few things on hand: fatback, bay leaves, chicken stock, green onions, a Santee sweet onion, heirloom garlic, unsalted roll butter, bacon grease, Carolina Gold rice from Anson Mills, and a mix for johnny cakes from Marsh Hen Mill. That was everything I needed for an old-school red peas and rice supper.
I brought equal parts chicken stock and water to a boil and dropped in the fatback. Once the pot was rolling again, I salted it and added the peas with a few dried bay leaves. I covered the pot and let it go on low heat for just over an hour.
Then the rice. In a small, heavy-bottomed pot over medium-high heat, I melted the butter and bacon grease together and added the washed Carolina Gold, coating every grain in the fat. I let it go about five minutes until it turned aromatic and the grains on the bottom browned to gold. I added equal parts stock and water, brought it to a boil, turned it down to a simmer, and salted lightly. A crushed garlic clove and a chopped green onion went into the peas, and I covered them again.
While the rice cooked, I made a ripper pea gravy. I took some peas and broth from the pot, added chopped heirloom fish peppers (one green, one red), chopped Santee sweet onion and a little chive, and pureed it all with an immersion blender. The result was barely spicy, rich, savory and aromatic. Then I fired up a skillet and made the johnny cakes.
I built the bowl: rice first, peas and broth ladled over, the gravy on top, a little fresh green onion to finish, and a hot johnny cake (some of you know it as a hoecake) on the side. The pea was creamy, rich and savory, and it was perfect with the gold rice. The gravy added another layer of creaminess, and the sweet saltiness of the johnny cake tied the whole dish together. It was probably the best peas and rice I have ever had.
Almost perfect. I was missing one of my favorite Southern condiments, pepper vinegar. I had made a fresh batch with rice vinegar and fresh fish peppers. I dribbled it over the top and took a bite, and that bright, peppery tang took me to another universe. It was the last ingredient the dish needed.
I don't think I will ever want to eat another field peas and rice meal without red rippers. It was that good.
An invitation to the kitchen
The red ripper is the pea of Southern farmers, of an African inheritance and of ground made healthy again, and it has been waiting for a cook to notice. For the chefs of South Carolina, Georgia and North Carolina, here's a chance to put a forgotten heirloom back where it belongs, and to tell the whole story of Southern peas instead of half of it.
Give it the love it was robbed of.
These peas are available now, fresh-frozen, from our weekly ordering page.
NEW! Curly Carolina Mustard Greens - Dorr Farms
This mustard truly is distinctly different from the broadleaf type. Besides the obvious differences in appearance, the curly being ruffled and thicker, and the broadleaf being larger, flat, and thinner, the flavor is quite different, and so should be chosen for different applications in the kitchen. Curly mustard packs more of that spicy heat than the broadleaf type, and is slightly on the bitter side. Its thicker leaves also mean they can take more heat in the cooking process and still maintain its structure. This is the greens of choice if you’re looking for striking appearance, robust flavor and some toothiness in your dish.
DISCOUNTS & PROMOTIONS
Heirloom tomatoes - mixed flat - Clem’s and Dale Acres
Buy 2 flats - $5 off
Buy 4 flats or more - 10% off
Standing orders
- Reference - a la carte price - $55 each
- 1 flat per week - $53
- 2-3 flats per week - $51 each
- 3-5 flats per week - $49 each
- 6+ flats per week - $47 each
Reach out to us if you’d like to get included on this deal!
Field peas and butterbeans - standing order options
A la carte price for comparison - $59 per bag across all varieties.
Option 1: Sign up for a weekly recurring order of any field pea or butterbean for 12 weeks - $57/ bag
Option 2: Sign up for weekly recurring order of any combination of 2 or 3 bags for 12 weeks - $56/ bag
Option 3: Sign up for weekly recurring order of any combination of 4 bags or more for 12 weeks - FREE Winter Squash Sample Box (Value of $30) + 1 free bag, $55/bag every week after (total value of at least $280)
*note - you can switch varieties of peas and peas anytime, any week. Just notify me!
Key:
** - limited availability
*OUT- currently out of stock
*OFS- out for season
NEW- recent addition
(SlowFood AOT)- appears on the SlowFood Ark of Taste for its exceptional qualities, flavor, story, and historical significance and/or usage.
✅ Bradford Farm Crops: ✅
-Bradford collards bagged/chopped (spring crop) *1-2 weeks out
-Bradford collards whole plant (spring crop) *1-2 weeks out
-Hybrid green cabbage *OUT
-Purple cabbage
-Shredded hybrid cabbage
-Shredded purple cabbage
-Bradford Okra (through October)
🤝 Partner Farms: 🤝
-Fruit
——Apples - Lively Orchards
———Fuji
———Golden Delicious
———Gala
———Granny Smith
———Ambrosia *OUT
———Jonagold
———Asian Pear (exclusive)
——Scuppernongs (bronze native grapes)
——Muscadines (purple native grapes)
——Cantaloupe
——Watermelon
———red seedless *Almost gone
———yellow seedless *Almost gone
----Prickly Pear - Wild Hope Farm
-Tomatoes
——Heirloom slicer mix - Clem’s, Dale Acres
——Grape, red
——Red round - Osage, Rabun Gap GA
——Gold slicer
——Roma
——Tomatillos
-Beets
——Gold
——Davidson River Red - Clem's
——Baby Davidson River Red - Clem's
-Roots
——Bolero - Clem’s Organic Gardens
----Parsnips - Clem's Organic Gardens
----Turnips, Hakurei - Clem's Organic Gardens
----Radish, Watermelon - Clem's Organic Gardens
----Radish, Rainbow Daikon - Clem's Organic Garden
-Potatoes
——Appalachian Gold - Clem’s
——Baby Appalachian Gold - Clem’s
----Pee Dee Sweet Potatoes
-----Large
-----Medium
-----Jumbo
-Peppers (sweet, savory, or mild)
——Green bell - Wild Hope Farm
----Red bell - Amish
----Italian, Carmen (frying pepper) - Wild Hope
——Jimmy Nardello - Wild Hope *OUT
——Heirloom Shishito - Dorr
——Anaheim (California Green Chile) (low heat) - Wild Hope
-HOT Peppers
——Jalapeños - Dorr Farms
——Serrano - Dorr Farms
——Cowhorn - Dorr Farms
——Baby Banana peppers - Dorr Farms
-Squash & Zucchini
----Zucchini - Dorr Farms
——Yellow Crookneck - Dorr Farms
----NEW! Patty Pan Mixed - Dorr Farms
----NEW! Snow Globe White & Green Ball - Dorr Farms
-Hard squash
——Butterbaby Squash - Clem’s
——Mini Spaghetti squash - Clem’s
——Autumn Frost butternut - SC
——Koginut - Wild Hope
——Delicata Heirloom - Wild Hope & Lake City
——Acorn - SC
——NEW! Cushaw (aka Crenshaw, aka Tennessee Sweet Potato Pumpkin) - SlowFood AOT - Amish
——NEW! Blue Hubbard - Amish
-Greens
——NEW! Kale, Scotch Curly - Wild Hope, Dorr
——NEW! Kale, Tuscan (Dino) - Wild Hope
——NEW! Red Chard, Rhubarb Supreme - Wild Hope
----NEW! Mustard, Curly - Dorr
----NEW! Rapa - Dorr
-Legumes
----NEW! Peas, Red Ripper (fresh-frozen) - Johnny McNair
----Butterbeans, Green (fresh-frozen) - Johnny McNair, Josh Johnson
----Butterbeans, Speckled (ff) - Johnny McNair, Josh Johnson
----Peas, Pinkeye (ff) - Johnny McNair, Josh Johnson
----Peas, White Acre (ff) - Johnny McNair, Josh Johnson
-Eggplant
——Italian Purple
-Sweet corn - Dale Acres
-Cucumbers, Kirby - Dorr Farms
-Blue Lake Pole Snap Beans - Dale Acres
-Broccoli
-Pecans (fresh, shelled, halved) - Johnny McNair
Coming soon:
MORE COMING SOON
….let us know if there is something else you are interested in that isn’t on our list