Got peas to pick tomorrow and its suppose to get close to 100 degrees tomorrow afternoon. Gonna hit the pea patch just as soon as I can see. Haven't looked today, but I expect to get somewhere between 3 to 4 bushels. Hopefully I'll be out of the patch and shelling peas in 2-3 hrs. Got 2 bushels yesterday.

Randy, when you take a pea, it keeps you busy for awhile!

Man! That's a bumper crop, for sure!

Blackeyes?

Purple hull.

Barry, we're just getting started. Picked about 3-4 bushels so far and the big crop is just coming in. The rain hit us just right and next week, we'll have way more peas than we need. After the family gets all they want, I'll pick and shell a few bushels for some of the older folks in the community. Then if anyone will pick them, they can have them.

I raise purple hulls, mostly to sell at the local produce auction. They are sold in 1/2 bushel boxes, and usually average around $15 or so a box, depending on the market that day. We do freeze some, and I like eating them, but with just the two of us, it doesn't take many.

How big is your pea patches?

I had one a couple years ago that was 3 rows by about 20' long. Made a makeshift T-Post and smooth wire frame, and they produced much more than we could eat. Gave lots away.

I need to get a garden in next spring. Just didn't have time this year.

You guys are making me jealous!

purple hull and brown crowder are my favorites. I had a hard time getting a stand of purple hull this year. Got 3 inch plus rains after planting. Planted the skips and it happened again. If all goes well I will have all the peas that I want, but the deer found them a few days ago. Water bottles on a string and a scare crow meant nothing to them, so I sprayed with a mixture of Gain Lavender washing soap and water. Worked the first night. We shall see. miles

Randy, did you see your bees working your peas? I have never seen them working mine in past years, while other people that I know say they work theirs hard. Yesterday, I was cutting the stems off of some peppers, getting ready to can them, and a bunch of honey bees were getting the salt (I guess) from my hat and sweat band. OR, it could be that I am getting sweeter as I age.

Barry, my pea patch is 10 rows wide by about 150 yds long. Its on a pipe line that crosses the place. Picked and shelled 6 bushels this morning.

Miles, when the peas started blooming, I was figuring the bees would show up, but they didn't. Its only about 100 yds from the hives to the peas.

For the uninitiated..... this is what 6 bushels of purple hull peas looks like.



And this is what they shelled out.

Picked some purples hulls this morning.

Finished up what i started in the heat yesterday.


Not sure about bushels.

But 4 five gallon buckets.


Several years ago i set out a bee hive along side my garden. Not 50 ft from peas.

Hardly ever saws honey bee in blooms. Bumble bees mostly.

Dang, that's a bunch of peas. That would be a few years worth for us. You must have a pea sheller.

That's the pea sheller on the stand behind the #3 washtub of peas.

That's way cool, Randy!

Man! That's a big pea patch!

I wonder if you've crossed that line from gardening into farming?

No-No-No! Gardening only. I cut way back on the garden this year. The pea patch, until a couple of years ago, was about 250 yds long and 12 rows wide. Now we plant watermelons on some of it and this year Rattlesnake wanted to try a couple of rows of pinto beans. Also I cut down on the size of the garden spots at the house. I'm gonna plant pine trees in about 1/3 of those spots.

We tried 'pick your own' gardening a few years ago..... never again!

Do you make a lot of pea soup?

That is way too much like work.

We will go to the market and buy what we want from Huttes or whites, whoever has what we are wanting at the time.

Finally thru with the peas for this year. We had a really good year, meaning we got rain when we needed it. I didn't keep an exact count, but we (us, family, and friends) picked roughly 35-38 bushels.

Still got watermelons growing, so I'm gonna take down part of the electric fence and let the deer have at whats left of the peas.

Was shredding the other day, and on the fenceline was a huge pumpkin vine. It had really big pumpkins on it, too!

Like 100 pounders...

I thought about stopping and getting one, and putting it in the cab with me, as the vine had grown quite a bit on our side of the fence..

Than I wondered what I would do with a 100 pound pumpkin...