The Emerson PurpleHull Pea Festival and Rotary Tiller Races Celebrate 25 Years.

There are festivals for large things in Arkansas, like watermelons. There are festivals for medium-sized things like peaches and apples and even cornbread. But, the one festival held the furthest south in our state happens to celebrate the smallest Arkansas food product -- the tiny PurpleHull pea.

A Hot Time In The Old Town, at the Emerson PurpleHull Pea Festival.

Emerson’s getting a reputation, nowadays, for having one of Arkansas’s hottest food festivals. We’re not talking about the spice; we’re talking about pure honest heat in the bottomlands of the state’s Timberland region.

The Emerson PurpleHull Pea Festival and World Championship Rotary Tillar Races take place the last weekend of each June. It’s a weekend filled with all sorts of fun, from pea shelling and pea tasting to dances and fireworks and a parade and so forth. It’s a classic Arkansas festival in its 21st year, and let me tell you what -- it’s a hot place to be, in the sense of it’s a great place to be.

And yes, the temperature these past several years has climbed into the triple digits. I was around back in 2009 for the day, and I enjoyed the celebration of the cookout, watched the shelling competition, observed the tiller racing and dined on a fine Pea Feast. I was looking forward to sharing that celebration again, this time with my daughter Hunter.

Now, Hunter is three (she’ll be sure to point out she’s three and a half, thank you very much) and fair as Snow White. She burns easily and she gets hot, but she’s a real trooper. I decided this year’s event was dependent on her; when she said it was time to go, it’d be time to go.

Still, it wasn’t too bad when we arrived about 9:30 that Saturday morning, ready to check out what was going on in the cafeteria. That’s where this year’s Great PurpleHull Peas and Cornbread Cookoff was set to be held. Joyce Daily was getting about putting the entries in their places on the stage. The scent of hot peas was everywhere -- not just from the entries being brought in by folks but also from the kitchen, where the Pea Feast was being prepared.

Hunter almost immediately won a drawing that she was entered in upon arrival and obtained a set of markers and a pack of colored construction paper, which made her happier than a dead pig in the sunshine. It also gave her something to do while I snapped away photos of all the goodies on the table.

And there were plenty -- big cast iron skillets of golden yellow cornbread, casserole dishes topped with dough with the lovely scent of peaches, bowls of PurpleHull peas already heated and ready to go, some with floats of ham or bacon within. There was even a jar of homemade sweet salsa available right out there.

The nine judges arrived and were announced, and they took no time in getting about the business of judging. This is a serious thing, and each year there’s usually two or three tastings of each of the items entered in the contest, just so the judges are absolutely sure they have chosen the best item.

When they were done, the prizes were announced. We were all quite surprised that no one entered a condiment this year... but that was all right... there were other prizes to be awarded. Best salsa went to Marla Hanson of Emerson. Donnie Griffin of Emerson took the prize for best cobbler. Jane Freppon of Emerson won for best cornbread.

The most original dish went to Don Moore of Anderson, for his Peeznkornbread Muffins... and let me tell you what. He came over and offered about those muffins and I took advantage of that situation. Don made up these sweet corn muffins stuffed with succulently soft cooked PurpleHull Peas -- and they were moist and magnificent. I coulda eaten the tar outta those.

And when it came down to the best dish of PurpleHull peas, well, if you’re from around those parts you know that Linda Miller just can’t be beat. She won the competition when I was there in 2009, and she won it last year, and by golly she won it this year too. How about that?

Well, all this pea judging and shooting had gotten me hungry, and Hunter was clamoring for food, so I went and stood in line and paid my six bucks and got us a plate full of Pea Feast. This is a delicacy served once a year at the festival and several times a year at good dinner tables around the town. It’s a big serving of PurpleHull peas, a square of just sweet enough cornbread, a plopped down bit of peach cobbler and the fixings -- which in this case are a smattering of fresh white onions, fresh jalapeno peppers, home stewed tomatoes and fresh tomato salsa. The salsa in this case is a sweet confection that brings a new level of happiness to the peas.

Not that they need any help. The folks at Emerson really know what they have going on there, and they do the peas right. They come out slightly sweet and hearty, with a satisfying flavor that’ll make any country girl happy. Hunter about fought me over that plate... claiming every bite hers. I could barely get in a bite edgewise!

While we were celebrating the great pea with the feast, the first heat got underway in the pea shelling contest. Don’t call it shucking -- that’s what you do to corn. In the under 12 competition, three young’uns got up on the stage with their moms and took off popping open those pods. This young one seemed to enjoy eating just about everything she got... which meant she didn’t have any peas to tally up when she got done, but that was all right.

There were two competitors in the teenage division, daughters of two of Emerson’s most pea-tacular families... gosh, I’m doing it now!... and then the adult heats began. Three different heats commenced one right after the other. Each contestant gathered up as many pea-pods as they thought they could shell in a few minutes’ time into a big bowl and took a seat on the stage. When the start was called, the music began and the pods went a-flying as nimble fingers made quick work of the peas.

There was a bit of a media frenzy when Doeleta Weaver Rome took to the stage -- she holds the record for the most peas shelled in the competition, with more than 17 ounces in one sitting. That’s more than a pound!

Now, Hunter was just giddy as could be to be there, and I was glad she was getting into the festivities. At one point she handed me an unshelled PurpleHull pod, and I took it and shelled it for her. She tried a few peas, and boy you could not imagine how she took to that. She appeared with another, and another... and finally I realized she was stealing pea pods right off the stage during the heats. My child!

The competition was fierce but happy. In the end, the winners were announced. Barbara Glover took third place with 5.5 ounces... Doeleta Rome second with 7.4 ounces... and the winner was Marla Hanson, who managed to shell 8.1 ounces in a manner of minutes.

With the cooking and the shelling over, Hunter and I went out on the grounds to inspect what was going on. We discovered a local farmer who was selling unshelled peas straight out of the garden from the back of a truck, along with ears of corn, tomatoes and zucchini. We took home a zucchini as big as my forearm for later grilling. Another farmer had fresh shelled peas, and from that stand I got a whole gallon of PurpleHull peas for $15 -- and I didn’t have to purple my thumbs for it.

We sampled some of the local fare -- which included homemade ice cream, funnel cakes, hot dogs, nachos, fried green tomatoes, meat pies and something called Geauxsicles -- one of which we obtained for sampling. The one we had was called a Lemondrop. It was a blend of sugar, buttermilk, lemon juice and zest and who knows what else. It was good. We sat on the grass with Hunter’s parasol for shade and enjoyed every bit of it.

It wasn’t long before we heard the sirens sounding... and here came the Million Tiller Parade. Though there aren’t actually a million tillers in the parade, it’s a great old-fashioned parade where the locals get in their cars and trucks and on motorbikes and tillers and tractors and horseback and share their pride in their hometown. I love parades like that.

In addition to the tillers, there were tractors -- antique tractors that are carefully maintained and shown off each year at this festival. I love the tractors. So does Hunter.

Afterwards she got her time in the bouncy house, and we bought an inflatable pony from one of the vendors. And then she looked up at me and told me “Mamma, it’s really hot. I’m hot.” And I knew it was time to go. As much as I love seeing those tillers race, it was time to find the air conditioning.

The temperature when we left was 102 degrees... which turned out to be a little cooler than Little Rock that day. Hey, it’s so much fun, you should try it yourself next year. Be prepared to bring yourself some water and a lawn chair to watch the races, and be sure to come hungry for that Pea Feast.

Check out updates on all that happened at the official event website.

Peas are in! First PurpleHull Peas of the Season Harvested Near Emerson.

The Arkansas standard for crowder peas, the majestic PurpleHull Pea, is a celebrated plant in my family. Seasons can be marked by them. The beginning of true summer, that is to say mid-June, is met with the first harvest of peas on the plate, usually boiled up with a bit of animal fat and served with fresh onion slices. New Year’s is celebrated with them (rather than the Yankee tradition of blackeyed peas), and the remainder of the saved-back crop gets used up usually before Lent begins. For me, May is pea-free, unless I am fortunate enough to come across them in one of my favorite home cookin’ restaurants.

Jerry Freppon of Emerson holds the first
"mess" of Emerson Purple Hull Peas of
the 2012 season. Freppon enjoyed a meal
of fresh purple hulls on Memorial Day
evening.

This year will be different. I just heard from Bill Daily, the PurpleHull pea guy. Bill’s big schtick is promoting the heck out of the Emerson PurpleHull Pea Festival, which is held the last weekend of June. I opened my messages this morning to see the smiling face of one Jerry Freppon... proudly holding a mess of prepared peas... fresh peas. Oh my.

Bill relates the following:

“Jerry Freppon of Emerson and his wife Jane enjoyed a meal of fresh purple hull peas Memorial Day evening. That’s because, to be best of anyone’s knowledge, he once again produced the season’s first ‘mess’ of Emerson Purple Hull Peas.”

Now, Jerry’s done this before in a way... he plants early, watches the crop closely and can usually be counted upon to be the first farmer in the area to harvest peas from the vine. Last year he pulled in that first crop on June 4th. This year, though -- May 28th.

PurpleHull peas in May? That’s unheard of. I mean, my south Arkansas relations usually start shelling (not shucking, shelling -- there’s an important distinction there) around mid-June. But to proudly bear a purple-tinted thumb in May? Inconceivable?

“It’s pretty remarkable,” Bill says. “We often have trouble getting enough peas ripe in time for the festival, and here he is with ripe peas a full month before the festival.”

Freppon says his motivation to raise the first peas is simple. “Nothing tastes better than a plate of good ole fresh purple hull peas.” He planted this batch on March 14th, in the middle of those strange near-90 temperatures we experienced at the tail-end of winter. He also plastic-sheeted his peas at the start of germination to protect them from birds and to keep the ground warm. Bill says peas don’t do well unless the ground is at least 60 degrees.

I am tempted to head south and see who else has themselves some peas ready to go. I still have a couple of Burge’s smoked turkey thigh bones and some homemade stock and I sure wouldn’t mind putting them to use bubbling about in a simmering pot of peas. That’d about make me plum happy today.

It’ll be interesting to see when the grand old PurpleHull pea makes it to our local farmers markets. I’m also curious to see if they beat the blackberries. I’ve already sighted some Johnson County and Pope County peaches, and they have been on the juicy side, much like the already-gone strawberries we got in early this year.

If you’re interested in celebrating the PurpleHull pea properly, make plans to attend the Emerson PurpleHull Pea Festival and World Championship Rotary Tillar Races June 29th-30th.

Pea-Knucklin'.

Emerson’s PurpleHull Pea Festival isn’t just about food and community, it has a lot to do with motorpower and sheer chutzpah.

Bill Dailey bugged me for years about coming down to the PurpleHull Pea Festival. Somehow, something would always come up and I couldn’t drive to South Arkansas for the weekend. But I wanted to go, and when I left television and started this blog I promised myself I’d make the attempt.

I finally got down there last June. I made special arrangements for childcare and left the house at oh-dark-thirty to drive on down through Sheridan and Fordyce and Camden and Magnolia to get there around ten that Saturday morning. Right on the highway in Emerson it didn’t look like much, but after I turned and headed west towards the school the traffic picked up.

And at the school, there was nary a spot to be found that wasn’t full of car or kid or booth. I rolled down the street and parked on the other side of the gymnasium and got my stuff together. I wanted to see what this was all about.

Turned out I was further from the action than I anticipated. I walked back the way I came past the school and a block and a half further to the church where the Great PurpleHull Pea and Cornbread Cook-off was being held. Around the back of the church I found the entrance and discovered that judging had just about concluded. While I was unable to sample as a judge (not that I’d been asked, but you know me, I would have offered), I had come at a great time for sampling.

As the winners were announced and trophies handed out, I wandered back and took a look. There were easily a dozen different cornbreads, varying in color from white to brown to brilliant yellow, each with its own shape in a dish or piled on a plate. Nearly a dozen dishes of traditional PurpleHull Peas were out on the end, and on the other end every manner of type of PurpleHull Pea dish, like PurpleHull Pea Salad, PurpleHull Pea Chili, PurpleHull Pea and Rice Casserole, PurpleHull Pea Salsa, PurpleHull Pea Zucchini Bread, PurpleHull Pea-Mole Dip and no it couldn’t be -- PurpleHull Pea, no, sorry, peach cobbler. Couple of versions of that.

The entrants and fans swarmed the table after everything was done, and plates were dished out for everyone to take and enjoy what was there. Linda Miller and Bill Samples, the winners in the PurpleHull Pea and Cornbread categories, posed for pictures. We all ate. And darned if it wasn’t all just good stuff… I even liked the bread.

Well, it was getting on about time for one of the two star attractions, the grand PurpleHull Pea Dinner. A crowd of us walked back up to the school and headed for the combined cafeteria-auditorium, where the first round of the shelling competition had begun. The kids were doing their thing, slitting the end of a PurpleHull peapod at one end and sliding their thumbs down to release the peas. There’s an art to it -- and either you’re taught it when you’re a child or you try desperately to catch up. While I had many purple thumbs back in my single digit years, I wasn’t about to go embarrass myself in the competition. I headed for the kitchen with my $6 for my PurpleHull Pea meal.


And as I stood in line, the ladies working the cafeteria line carefully loaded each plate up with a hunk of cornbread, a generous serving of PurpleHull Peas and a mess of peach cobbler. They asked each person going through if they’d like some ‘mater and onion with it -- the correct answer is yes. There was a hunk of butter on the end of the counter, and around the back was some peppers if you liked them. And you got a beverage, tea or sweet tea or Kool-Aid. After getting my plate and drink I weaved back through the crowd to find a single seat on a cafeteria-style table.

And what a meal… no meat at all, just the savory sweetness of the peas accompanied by stringent fresh onions, juicy just-picked tomatoes and that slightly sweet cornbread. The peppers were all right with it, but I found that just sopping up some pea juice with a little cornbread was all I really needed.

Lunch over and the shell-off just about done, people started packing up and heading outside. Unlike most of the rest of last summer, that particular weekend in June straddled the 100 degree mark. A slow pilgrimage started towards a field down the road, with people bringing their chairs and umbrellas along. I followed suit.

And once I found a place to light and took some photos, I developed a mighty thirst. Fortunately there was a local group selling homemade ice cream. They’d made up a bunch in advance and stored it in pitchers, but it was melting so fast that what you got was a nice ice cream drink that resembled a shake, which was fine. I was one of the lucky ones -- they ran out and were down to canned drinks and bottled water minutes later.

Why in the world would all of us line up that way? Well, everyone wants a good seat for the tiller races. That’s right -- Emerson’s not just home to the festival but also to the World Championship Rotary Tiller Races. It’s something between a roller derby and a car wreck, I tell you what, but you can’t take your eyes away.

The first round was the ladies’ competition -- and there were just two racing this year. The crowd surged from under sunshades and umbrellas and crowded at the fence surrounding the makeshift tiller track, hundreds of people breathing and sweating with anticipation.

There was some prep work, and then suddenly the burst of gunfire and they were off!

And halfway down the lane, one of the two ladies wiped out in a huge shower of dirt and dust, quickly engulfed in a deluge of dirtiness. There was a moment of silence that gripped the just-hollering crowd, that moment of “oh gosh, what happened, she all right?” that whispered itself out there. The woman stood up, threw up her thumbs and there was a roar. It was all in good fun, and other than her pride and a few scrapes she was fine.

Unfortunately, no one could have known that the whole affair would end with the first race. The wipeout killed one of the two tillers for the competition, leaving little to do but try to fix it. While the crowd waited, a couple got married out on the track, and a gentleman showed off his tiny rail engine tiller.

And that was it. It was hot, I was tired and I had a long drive ahead of me. But I had a belly full of peas and a camera full of pictures. The day for me had been a success.

I just got to looking at the schedule for this year’s event. I noticed that this year the Great Purple Hull Pea Cook-off is in the afternoon and the tiller races are in the morning. Perhaps the idea is to keep as many people inside in the cool in the late afternoon hours as possible. I can sure endorse that.

If you’d like more information about the Emerson PurpleHull Pea Festival and World Championship Rotary Tiller Race, check out the website. It’s a great deal of fun and a wonderful time to enjoy one of our state’s more eclectic festivals. It's coming up June 25-26th and is usually held on the final weekend of June each year.