Peas~~What do you do to them?

[tallpines]

shell them?

hull them?

chuck them?

What ever you call it, is there a technique to make the job go faster?

[GrannyG]

I prefer to hand shell them....I have one of those gadgets that you hook up to your mixer and it will shell them out, but it squashes alot of them as well. Nothing better than black-eyed peas...lots of good recipes for them as well. So good fixed with bacon and drippings, cornbread, and sliced onions...

[pattypenny]

in colonial days the peas were dried and then put in a sack and beaten until they shelled out the dry material was put on sheet and with 3 or more tossing the sheet the materal would floot away on the wind leaving the try peas.

[Kris in MI]

My dds and I sat on the porch Sunday evening and shelled out about 3 gallons of peas. It was nice to sit in the breeze and talk while we worked.

[farmmom]

I hand shell my sweet or snap peas and eat them raw, usually while I'm still in the garden!! YUMMM!

[Joshie]

Depends on the variety. The ones I planted are edible so we won't shell them at all.

[MullersLaneFarm]

What kind of peas and what do you want to do with them?

If they are the shelling kind, sit on the porch with a grandchild and shell them. you can use them fresh, freeze them (after blanching) or can them.

I also like leaving the last of them on the vine to dry for pea soup in the winter and for replanting the next spring.

You [i]could've] brought them here last weekend. We would have made short work out of them!

[Sawmill Jim]

Here we plant purple hull peas . I like em cooked

[Patt]

Buy a pea sheller.

Seriously I like shelling them by hand myself but I think we will try some leather britches this year too that I saw in the Foxfire books.

[Ravenlost]

I hate shelling peas with a passion so I'd chuck them over the fence to the chickens!

[whatrset]

I hate shelling peas. Tis why I have a drum/paddle style sheller.

[MOgal]

I prefer hand shelled purple hull peas but don't have the time to do it by myself. I invested in one of the gadgets years ago and found that if I blanch the whole pods before I run them through the machine, they don't get crushed so easily. Also, I don't run so many through at one time so that the peas have a space to "escape." My biggest issue with them is that there is quite a bit of the material surrounding the individual pea that you have to wash away before freezing.

GrannyG, if you will throw in some sliced tomatoes, I'll be there in time for dinner. I have so many fond memories of sitting on the back porch shelling peas with my grandmother! That and shucking corn with both grandparents after Papa "retired" from farming.

[paintboy]

we've never had any make it into the house. Soon as the pods form it's a battle to be the first one to eat them and it continues til they're done.

[GrannyG]

I can still remember spiders running around on the floor when we were doing dry peas....I would scream my head off.....LOL

[TexasAggie]

Originally Posted by Kris in MI

My dds and I sat on the porch Sunday evening and shelled out about 3 gallons of peas. It was nice to sit in the breeze and talk while we worked.

When growing up in southeast Texas, every 4th of July, we sat in metal spring rockers and shelled peas, every once in a while, you would snap a pea, and we also did butter beans.

[lmrose]

I hand shell the peas hopefully when baby sitting a five year old who loves to help! I can our peas in glass mason jars and freeze a few. This year I may experiment with drying some. My husband said he prefers the bottled [ canned] peas i winter rather than frozen ones.

[motdaugrnds]

I want both in same pot (shelled and pods).

A few years ago I planted a blackeye pea that was advertised for this purpose; but cannot remember where I got them. Since that time I have only found the purple hull and blackeye and people are telling me they don't think I can eat the pods. (Seems one person said I could eat the pods of any pea if I pick it young enough. What would "young enough" be?)

I've got purple hulls and blackeye cowpeas growing now; but they have not bloomed as yet.