I am 83 years old and this recipe for soup made from pea hulls belonged to my mother. Pioneers really knew what “waste not, want not” meant.
“After hulling the peas from the pods, tie the pods in a bag made of some coarse cotton or linen cloth; place the bag in cold water over a moderate fire; boil until the sweetness is extracted from the pods; remove the bag; then squeeze it so that all the juice will be left in the water; after that is done, season as any other soup, and depend on it you will have as fine and highly flavored a plate of soup as ever graced a table or tempted an appetite. Don’t throw away the pods of the peas when a soup can be had at so small a cost.”
Isabelle Quinn
Cherokee, Iowa
Back in 1955 a call went out from the editors of the then CAPPER’s Weekly asking for readers to send in articles on true pioneers. Hundreds of letters came pouring in from early settlers and their children, many now in their 80s and 90s, and from grandchildren of settlers, all with tales to tell. So many articles were received that a decision was made to create a book, and in 1956, the first My Folks title – My Folks Came in a Covered Wagon – hit the shelves. Nine other books have since been published in the My Folks series, all filled to the brim with true tales from CAPPER’s readers, and we are proud to make those stories available to our growing online community.
