The following was written by intern Natalie Staples and will soon be posted on the "Digging Rushton" blog. Natalie is a junior at Kenyon College and has been a valuable member of the Rushton Farm Staff for the past two summers.
A Tangle of Rods and Pods
I do not know what age I was when I got lost in the pea-drills in a field behind the house, but it is a half-dream to me, and I've heard about it so often that I may even be imagining it. Yet, by now, I've imagined it so long and so often that I know what it was like: a green web, a caul of veined light, a tangle of rods and pods, stalks and tendrils, full of assuaging earth and leaf smell, a sunlit lair...All children want to crouch in their secret nests.
- Seamus Heaney, from Preoccupations
Picking peas at the end of the day is a calming task. You can hear the soft drop of peas- that is if you are slow picking, celebrity picking, as some like to call it. You can also hear the occasional crunch of the person beside you eating a sugar snap that is bruised or funny looking. Sometimes those are the sweet ones. Often, the ripe peas will be all in a line at the same height. As if they knew they had to be picked. But others hide, little treasures among nests of green. Some even have a twisty vine around them, as if they are trying to hold close as long as possible.
This makes sense though, because the sugars sweeten as they mature. Pick them too early and you will lose the flavor of peas. This is when the fine combed harvesting comes in: when the peas are skinny and the white flower is still attached to the pea, they are not ready to be picked.
However, when you can start to feel the bumps of the peas and the flower is browning, it's ready. You have to be patient, two days between harvests can make a difference.
You can see the stages of the peas in the picture below. The top pea still has its white flower and is evidently still maturing, the middle peas are a little too skinny, but the bottom one looks round and ready to be harvested! Picking peas is more social than other harvesting.
You can see people at eye level, hands raised towards the rows of peas. All of us on one task, no longer separated. Every once in a while someone will dump a shirt full into my bucket and I feel like a champion because it looks like I've picked twice as many. Nothing like a little friendly competition to see who can pick the most peas.
As the peas continue to climb they need fresh trellising. Last season, I remember pulling the white yarn around the posts. The motion is a little like sailing, both hands managing different tasks. One hand managing the new line and the other pulling it taut. I like the motion of harvesting peas as well.
You can harvest one handed, hold on to the end of the pea and snap it off with your finger nail, so as not to tug on the whole vine. But the best part of harvesting peas is the search: a little surprise of finding a rogue snow pea among the sugar snaps or spying a delightfully round one.
- Natalie Staples
