Question: What would make fresh black-eyed peas not get tender when cooked?
By: Taylor Barnes
Published: January 7, 2014

I grew up eating and cooking fresh field peas like lady creams, purple hulls, and of course black eyed peas. I never had any problems cooking them. The peas normally came from a garden or farmer's market. This year for New Year's day I bought packaged fresh black-eyed peas in the produce section of my local Tom Thumb grocery store. The package said they were fresh ready to cook and grown in Texas. I cooked the peas using a recipe I had never used before from The Neelys who have a show on Food Network called Down Home With the Neelys. See link to recipe on Food Network below:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/patrick-and-gina-neely/black-eyed-peas-with-bacon-and-pork-recipe/index.html 
I cooked the peas as directed (similar to how I have normally cooked them in the past) but they were not anywhere near being tender after 1 1/2 hours. I kept cooking them until 5 hours had elapsed and they never softened. These were fresh peas and did not need to be soaked over night. I looked online and found quite a few people had the same problem with the same type of peas around the same time. Could this be a result of the way they were packaged?