Rhonda, it is a job, but those frozen...

Those frozen packages of vegetables will help you remember summer all winter long!

When I was growing up, we would have hampers and hampers of peas and butterbeans to shell. No one that we knew had a butterbean or pea sheller. Our neighbors would come over and shell and would never leave empty-handed! We would swing, talk, rock, and shell those butterbeans for HOURS.

On those "shelling days," Mama would fix bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwiches for lunch. My daddy HATED sandwiches, but he would eat them on "shelling days." He picked the peas and butterbeans but I never saw Daddy shell one pea or butterbean.

When I was little I would tell my mother that I wish that I had a dollar for every pea and butterbean that I had shelled. I would be a rich woman now!

When the zipper cream peas start "coming in" now, I buy the peas from a friend whose husband plants a huge garden each year. She gets someone to pick the peas. I take the peas to the sheller and come back within a couple of hours.

I thought that this was pretty extravagant until I saw that zipper cream peas were selling for $4.00 a quart at my favorite produce market!

My mom has passed away along with many of her neighbors. However, whenever I make bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwiches I remember the fun that we all had shelling peas and butterbeans on Mama's back porch!

Thanks for helping to revive some of those memories for me!