Pease porridge hot, pease porridge cold, pease porridge in the pot, nine days old!

Pease porridge hot, pease porridge cold,

Pease porridge in the pot, nine days old;

Some like it hot, some like it cold,

Some like it in the pot, nine days old!

Listen to Peas Porridge Hot

Music and Lyrical Adaptation by Jack Hartmann

As I made my first fall stew this week as a welcome to fall on September 22, I thought about this song. My stew is like pease porridge... the pot keeps going day after day, because I keep adding ingredients. It began as a pumpkin stew, but I couldn't fit all the ingredients in the pot, so as we ate it up, I slowly added celery, then carrots, then more corn and then noodles. Each addition created a new flavor, so it's not like eating Pease Porridge every day for nine days. And unlike Pease Porridge, our stew didn't last so long-- I ran out of ingredients on day four, and ran out of soup on day five. But it was a healthy and delicious meal every time!

So what is Pease porridge and where does it come from?
According to Wikipedia, "Pease Porridge Hot," also known as "Peas Porridge Hot" or "Pease Pudding Hot" is a children's singing game and nursery rhyme. The origins of this rhyme are unkown, but the name derived from Middle English Pease Porridge and Pease Pudding which was called Pease Pottage.

The earliest printing of the rhyme was in John Newbery's Mother Goose's Melody, 1760.

Pease Porridge hot,

Pease Porridge cold,

Pease Porridge in the Pot

Nine Days old,

Spell me that in four Letters?

I will, THAT.