The problem with botulism is people have gotten it just by licking a finger they dipped in a bad jar, even if they decide to throw the jar away right after that (not that you can tell by tasting anyway). So while you might be able to break down the toxin in the part you boil, you will still have potential contamination on your jar opener, your hand, your pot, your sink, etc. I am the person I know who wants to salvage everything, but for a few bags of dried beans and a day's work, I'd start over. Would any batch of beans be unsuitable for salsa after safe canning, or only these that have already been partially cooked? If you've found that you'll never be able to home-can beans for salsa, why worry about salvaging these? What about cooking a huge pot and freezing some for salsa? Melissa

leave 'em on the plant. then, once the hulls are dry, shuck 'em and put them somewhere in the shade with good air flow (a cookie tray on a back porch, say)... i've had seeds go funky even when i was SURE they had completely dried. btw, you know you can eat the beans when young, before the seeds form--just like green beans. you can eat them once the hull dries a bit and turn light brown but the peas are still green (easier to shuck 'em). and you can let the peas dry completely and store them, though really the flavor degrades. personally, if i have a lot, i stick 'em in a ziplock and into the freezer.

I think I can answer the original question from info passed down from my dad, born in 1899 on a small farm in central Arkansas. Much of the population in the last half of the 1800s lived on small farms where the well being of the family was closely tied to their skill as gardeners. Which was done without the aid of fertilizers, hybrids, or insecticides. Blackeyed peas were a common crop. Since they stored well as dried peas they could provide the family with a good food source for many months. Southern peas are a legume that uses symbiotic bacteria to supply itself with nitrogen, so a good crop could be had on relative infertile soils. Even better, in many soils of the southeast, the nitrogen fixed by the bacteria persisted into the following year, leading to better crops of any kind. Crop rotation from peas to other crops was known to be a good practice. Now for the Good Luck. Those families that had planted so much of their land in peas that they were still eating them at the new year had, by doing so, enriched their soil with the nitrogen that would lead to better crops in the following year. The scenario repeated itself enough til people began to associate peas on new years day as a sign of good luck to follow, and a superstition was born.

Black eyed peas are delicious, either fresh or dried. A traditional New Year's dish in some parts of the South is "Hoppin John", which is black eyed peas cooked with rice, onion, seasonings, some sort of pork, and other goodies. Like all traditional recipes, every family has its variations on the basic theme. You can do a Google search and end up with dozens of recipes. It's a great way to cook black eyed peas. But if I'm in the mood for black eyed peas but feeling lazy, I reach for a can of Trappey's Black Eyed Peas with Jalapeno peppers. Mighty good stuff. (Trappey's is a company based in South Louisiana; their canned goods are excellent, but may be hard to find in some parts of the country.) Here is a link that might be useful: Hoppin John