For Immediate Release
Contact person: Bill Dailey cell (501) 416-4657
Email: purplehull@juno.com
Web site:
www.purplehull.com
Photos of Billy Williams in his pea patch are available for download at :
www.purplehull.com/images/billywilliams2008a.jpg and
www.purplehull.com/images/billywilliams2008b.jpg
Each photo is about 1 meg.
Possible cutline: Emerson purple hull pea farmer Billy Williams inspects his crop at his farm west of Emerson on Saturday. Williams receives calls from across the United States for his peas.
Billy William’s phone numbers: Home: (870) 547-2401, Cell: (870) 515-1345
Last week, Emerson farmer Billy Williams received a phone call from Alaska. And another from Indiana. Additional distant calls have come this week.
The callers have one thing in common. They all want his purple hull peas.
Williams is the reigning Emerson PurpleHull Pea Farmer of the Year, an award presented each year at the annual Emerson, Arkansas PurpleHull Pea Festival, which will take place this weekend.
Purple hull peas are members of the southern pea family, cousins to the more widely known black-eyed peas. But, as any local to this area will tell you, they have one major difference: Purple hulls taste a whole lot better.
Then there are the emails. While Williams doesn’t have email, the PurpleHull Pea Festival does, and the “inbox” is full of requests for the crop for which the town is becoming known.
“Virtually every day, we get an email from somewhere in the country, wanting purple hull peas,” says Bill Dailey, spokesman for the festival. “It’s mostly from displaced southerners, but not always. We got an email Monday from a fellow in Alabama wanting 500 pounds of peas.”
While Dailey was commenting about the festival’s emails, he was interrupted by a phone call from Des Moines, Iowa. Of course, the call was inquiring about peas.
Williams, who estimates he has been growing purple hull peas for at least 55 of his 65 years, is happy with what he sees in his field this year.
“It probably is one of the better crops I’ve ever had,” says Williams.
Saturday, the well tended 6-acre pea patch was full of healthy, almost grass-free vines loaded with pea pods that are still green, but on the verge of ripening into the purple color from which this variety of pea gets its name.
Trouble is, for the moment at least, Williams is the only one who can begin to supply even a portion of the demand for Emerson Purple Hull Peas.
The festival was created in 1990 to honor what is essentially a revered backyard garden crop in this area. Very few grew the peas for anything other than their own use, or to give away to neighbors and friends.
The festival attracted nationwide attention due to its feature event, the World Championship Rotary Tiller Race, a race of souped-up garden tillers, a spectacle which has garnered considerable national television coverage. In tandem with the tiller race’s rise, demand for Emerson’s peas has grown as well.
“It’s ironic,” added Dailey. “Most festivals arise out of an existing local industry. In this case, a festival has the potential to create a local industry.”
What makes the Emerson version of purple hull peas possess a taste so special? Williams thinks he knows.
“The soil that anything is grown in has a lot to do with what anything tastes like,” says Williams. “It’s the soil.”
Emerson’s soil is a fine sandy loam, which is readily evident when walking through Williams’ field.
However, there are different varieties of purple hull peas, and each has a taste of their own, according to Williams. He grows primarily the C.T. Smith and BVR varieties.
The PurpleHull Pea Festival and its feature event, the World Championship Rotary Tiller Race, will be this Friday and Saturday, June 27 and 28. The tiller race will begin at 2:30 p.m., Saturday.
More information is available at the festival’s website, www.purplehull.com.
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