In case anybody was looking for an inexpensive summer cover crop:

I bought a 1lb bag of black-eyed peas at publix the other day. Cooked half and reserved half soaked for planting. The soaked ones did sprout, so that is a good sign. As a rule I don't like to eat any dry beans or peas that are so old they won't sprout.

Anyway, it's a convenient and cheap source of cow-pea seed. Of course commercial food-grade crops are overwhelmingly likely to be grown from a hybrid, which means that these peas will have all kinds of throw-back characteristics which might be interesting, and also will increase the odds that a few might be very well adapted to one's particular garden circumstances.