Does anyone else out there remember back to 50's i think when frozen peas became available. Not having a freezer I remember being sent to the butchers with a jug to get a pint of peas!
Am I imagining it? My lot think I am going senile
I was too, at about 8 years of age was given a few bob by my dad to get his baccie and was allowed to spend the 2d change on whatever I wanted, and got a lovely bag of sweets withthat.
I don't ever remember frozen peas being sold by the pint but I suspect that dried peas might have been. I remember frozen peas appearing in the shops but they were packets of Birdseye peas; most people didn't even have a fridge in those days, let alone a freezer, so a single packet was all that people could cope with.
It may well have been dry peas. But thought thay were frozen. It definitely was for eating though as I would be sent while mother was cooking and it was the butchers because they had fridges and freezer before most households.
Might it have been mushy peas? I can't ever remember buying peas by the pint but I do remember fishmongers selling mussels by the pint or quart. I also remember Surprise peas. They were a vivid green.
Before the advent of frozen peas if you wanted peas out of season you bought dried peas, soaked them overnight with a tablet of bicarbonate of soda (I think) to make them greener and then boiled them the following day. In our early days of marriage we tried them in a pressure cooker to cut down the cooking time. Unfortunately they boiled up and blocked the pressure control, the pressure built up until the safety valve blew. We hadn't really wanted a green ceiling but we got one.
I may well be mistaken. It may have been the fishmongers. No it wasn't mushy peas.. These were loose, not in packets or tins. And not the usual addition to our meal. We only had them on special occassions, maybe it was the butcher, or fishmonger, who was just doing a favour for some of his customers. .