The mysterious "hushabye" pea

[aquila973]

We were given some peas for us to grow by sweet and kind lady in her 80's who lives in N. Georgia. She told us they could not be found anymore and she called them husbands peas. Does anyone have any knowledge of this type of pea the best way to plant them? They are about the size of and look similar to a black-eyed pea but are a mid tone than or Brown and wrinkled.Sorry no photo a available.

 

[Chuck]

From what you describe I am sure you have some old heirloom variety of cow pea. You plant them just like you would black eyed peas or purple hulls

 

[grouie]

As @Chuck says it must be an heirloom. Plant them and see that you get results.

 

[IcyBC]

That sounds interesting! I planted some sweet peas before and the flowers are beautiful to see. Would to see how yours turn out.

 

[Marck]

What an intriguing tidbit of southern folklore. Were these peas called both 'hushabye peas' and 'husbands peas'?

I did find an article about growing peas in Georgia that may shed some little light on this:
https://ugaurbanag.com/georgia-peas-please/

To quote the last line of the article:
"We close with a gardening wives’ tale – ” If a girl finds nine peas in a pod, the next bachelor she meets will become her husband.”

Now the article is discussing types of spring garden peas (Pisum sativum), but it is likely that such a superstition might be applied to various beans and peas with multi-seeded pods, including Cowpeas (Vigna unguiculata). Without seeing the seed mentioned by the OP we cannot say, it might have been a brown and wrinkled garden pea, cowpea, or something else.