“Southerners may make resoutions for the New Year, but they know success (or lack of it) depends more on what is eaten on 1 January than on all the good intentions in the world. More black-eyed peas and collards are consumed on that day than any other time of the yearpart of an antique gastronomic insurance policy. Collards are for a steady suppy of folding green in the coming year; black-eyed peas for plenty of pocket change.”

—Bill Neal, from Bill Neals Southern Cooking, 1989.