Hoppin’ John & Hello 2025 - No. 320

A Gullah story, some wishes for a new year + goodbye Jimmy Carter

TOMORROW MORNING, WE’LL WAKE UP in a new year. And in spite of the dreadful news cycle, 2025 sounds hopeful to me.

I remember when it took a month to leave the old year behind and write the new one on a check instead.

Maybe I still had one foot in that old year. But I can tell you with affirmation that I have not even a baby toe in 2024. And come the stroke of midnight I’ll be shouting that it’s a brand new start!

There were parts of 2024 I’m just happy to leave behind. But I couldn’t have asked for a better book launch, tour, and reception from all of you this year. And that book buzz continues in 2025 as I visit more of the American South (Montgomery, Richmond, Houston) as well as venture north to Washington D.C., Philadelphia, and Chicago. Dear West Coast, I’ve got some plans brewing, just not finalized yet.

In this space in the new year, I can’t wait to write more about recipes not-yet-attempted, recipes way-too complicated (love to unravel those), recipes old and yet revisited, and just tell more stories about people and life. Get between the layers.

Because we’d all like a little luck in the new year, what better recipe to prepare than beans and rice?

Depending on where you live—according to my Substack stats, Between the Layers is read in all 50 U.S. states and 107 countries too—those beans may be red, black, or the humble dried pea.

My New Year’s meal in Nashville has starred black-eyed peas and braised turnip greens for as long as I can remember. The peas are for luck and the greens for prosperity. And they’re absolutely delicious in combination with rice and cornbread.

I was reading the book, Gullah Culture in America, by Wilbur Cross and Eric Crawford (2000) while traveling on book tour. I had no idea the Gullah Geechee culture along the southeastern Atlantic coast went mostly unnoticed until the 1860s when northern missionaries came to the area at the advent of the Civil War.

And I stumbled upon a recipe I had taken for granted on New Year’s Eve and Day. Hoppin’ John, a communal one-pot combination of rice and dried peas, has its roots in West and Central Africa where it was once simmered in iron pots. And it became a mainstay of the Gullah diet.

The Gullah coastline along the Atlantic Ocean in the American Southeast. Illustration: Getty Images

Isolated on islands scattered along the southeastern U.S. coast, the Gullah Geechee community has relied on land and sea to create its own culture and recipes.

Forcibly brought to the South to raise cotton, rice, and indigo in the 18th and 19th centuries, the Gullah people have lived on South Carolina coastal islands and the Geechee on the islands off the coast of Georgia and northern Florida.

It never dawned on me that events related to the Civil War would preserve their unique culture. South Carolina became the first state (of eleven) to declare independence from the United States in 1860, triggering the Civil War. The first shots were fired on Fort Sumter a year later, and St. Helena and other S.C. islands became occupied by Union (northern) forces. As a result, white landowners vacated plantations leaving behind 10,000 formerly enslaved African laborers.

In the spring of 1862, U.S. Secretary of Treasury Salmon Chase appointed Boston attorney Edward L. Pierce to begin the Port Royal Experiment to create schools and hospitals for these ex-slaves. That same month a steamship carrying teachers, Unitarian ministers, and doctors left New York City bound for Port Royal, a town situated near where Hilton Head is today.

One of these passengers was Laura Matilda Towne, the daughter of a wealthy Philadelphia businessman. She was a teacher, homeopathic healer, active congregant in the Unitarian church, and a staunch abolitionist. With funds from her dowry, she spent her life on St. Helena teaching reading and writing to the Gullah people, healing the sick, and helping locals navigate land deeds and begin to support themselves. Her work evolved into the Penn School, the first school in the South for formerly enslaved Africans.

Today, more than 300,000 Gullah-speaking people still live on St. Helena, Edisto, Coosaw, Ossabaw, Sapelo, Daufuskie, and Cumberland islands.

And Penn School is now the Penn Center, a cultural and educational center on St. Helena, affiliated with the National Park Service. In 1989, it organized a trip for Gullah people to return to their homeland of Sierra Leone. When they arrived in Africa, they knew the words of spiritual hymns, visited the slave market, and took part in the annual rice harvest. They were greeted with a luncheon of gumbo and Hoppin’ John.

Making Hoppin’ John

Today, Hoppin’ John may have Gullah origins, but it is a much-Americanized recipe. If you want to know how this recipe hasn’t stayed true to its original self of peas/beans and rice, go over to Serious Eats to read all about that. What I want to share is to how to make it as close to the original and successfully.

On page 161 of Gullah Culture in America is a recipe that chef Benjamin (BJ) Dennis prepared for a Discover South Carolina video. He advises we use any dried ‘’peas’’ in this recipe, which includes black-eyed peas, red black-eyed peas, red peas, field peas, or just crowder peas.

Dried peas get complicated, according to Robert Moss in his Serious Eats article, because in the 19th century there were a number of varieties of peas to choose from. The prized Sea Island Red Pea, once a key rotation crop on Sea Island just south of Charleston, was abandoned when rice growing ended. Today, it has been brought back to life by Marsh Hen Mill, a family farm on Edisto Island. Or if you want to grow your own red peas, here is a source. As a substitute, Camellia beans of New Orleans sells excellent field peas. But in most recipes for Hoppin’ John, black-eyed peas are a key ingredient.

Adrian Miller, author of Soul Food: The Surprising Story of an American Cuisine, One Plate as a Time (2013), says black-eyed peas have been eaten throughout the South by Blacks and whites alike, but they are looked down on as poor-people food outside the South. I believe their earthy flavor is a large part of the success of this recipe. In the end, you should use the dried pea or bean you have. That’s what Gullah cooks have always done.

Jimmy Carter, 2011. Photo: David Hume Kennerly, Getty Images.

And that’s surely what Jimmy Carter’s family would have done if making this recipe. We lost a legend Sunday afternoon when former U.S. President and humanitarian Jimmy Carter, 100, died. I pay tribute to him in this Bitter Southerner piece.

May we all have luck and prosperity and live as honorably and peacefully as Georgia’s native son. Happy 2025 and all that it brings!

- xo, Anne

In 2025, I wish for:

1. Kindness + its friend civility

2. More LIKES (push that little heart button) on posts, please

3. Good health

4. Good books + good food

5. Lower grocery prices!

6. Real news, not fake

7. More stories and more travel. Substack writer Alice Goldboom says in her insightful newsletter A Considerable Age that stories ‘’bridge distances, heal divides, fill in gaps, and remind us of our common ground.’’ And from novelist Eudora Welty: ‘’One place comprehended can make us understand other places better.’’

What are you wishing for in the new year?

THE RECIPE:

Hoppin’ John Gullah-Style

Here’s the truth: Hoppin’ John is so yummy but it can get mushy. Every one-pot recipe involving rice can get mushy. You need to begin with long-grain rice, such as basmati or Carolina Gold. Rinse it as the recipe suggests to rid it of some starch. And if you just don’t like mushy, then cook the rice separately and spoon the beans/peas and juices over it. But Hoppin’ John is the mix of the two. I watch the liquid, adding a bit more water as needed to keep the peas from getting dry. This recipe is best served hot from the pot. If it sits, add a little more water and heat gently to create more broth. And it’s based on a smoked meat-flavored broth. I used country ham leftover from Christmas, but if you don’t do meat, then saute the onion, pepper, and garlic in olive oil and add to the peas and simmer. You can also forgo the meat and simmer with chicken broth instead of the water and omit the meat. For extra sweetness, add a cup of diced carrots along with the onion, and absolutely add a half cup of diced celery along with the vegetables if you have it.

Makes 8 servings

• 8 ounces lean smoked meat (ham hock, country ham, cured ham pieces)

• 7 cups water, plus more water for soaking the peas and the rice

• Black pepper and 3 bay leaves

• 10 ounces (generous 1 1/2 cups) black-eyed peas

• 1 cup minced onion

• 1/2 cup minced red or green pepper

• 4 cloves garlic, minced

• Pinches of salt, onion powder, garlic powder, paprika, cayenne pepper

• 1/2 cup long-grain rice such as Basmati

• Chopped parsley, pepper vinegar for seasoning, hot sauce

1. Place the meat in a 6– to 8-quart pot and cover with 7 cups of the water. Add a pinch of black pepper and the bay leaves. Place over high heat and bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low, cover, and let simmer until the meat is tender, about 30 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, rinse the peas and pick out any grit or hard pieces. Place in a glass bowl and pour over enough hot water to cover them while the meat simmers.

3. Drain the peas and add to the pot along with the onion, pepper, and garlic. Add the pinches of spices and stir. Bring to a simmer, cover and let cook until the peas are tender, about 45 to 50 minutes. Keep an eye on the water and don’t let the pot boil dry. Add a little more water in 1/2 cup increments if needed.

4. When the peas are nearly tender, place the rice in a wire-mesh sieve and rinse with water four times. You want the grains to be separate. Add the rice and 1 cup more water. Let simmer, covered, until rice is done, about 20 minutes. Serve in bowls with chopped parsley, vinegar, or hot sauce.