But today really was the last picking, because I pulled up all of the vines. In the process, I found more peas, many of which were dry. (I'm saving those for seeds for next year, just in case.) This time I said to Nanny, "There's probably about a cereal bowl full of peas in this bucket, once they're shelled. Do you want to fool with them?" She said she did not, so I brought them home and shelled them, and had nearly a quart bag full.
It took nearly three hours to pull up the vines (and a good bit of grass) and haul the debris out of the garden. I have never seen such long runners on purple hull peas. They were all tangled up with the squash, and twining around the tomato cages and making love knots with the cucumbers - ten or twelve feet long, some of them. Is that normal?
I picked a grocery bag full of squash and another bag full of tomatoes. Cut half a bag of okra (not counting what had gotten too tough). Picked a shirt-tail full of pimiento and cayenne peppers. I am sending all of it (except the tomatoes) to work with The Husband tomorrow. Might even send that bag of shelled peas.
Tomorrow, I'm going to leave work early and come home to can these tomatoes. After that, if it doesn't rain, I'm going to go back to the garden to snatch up the green beans. If daylight and dry weather hold out long enough, I'll till up the empty rows and get them ready to plant the next crops. Butterbean seeds are on their way in the mail, and there are packets of sweet peas waiting on the kitchen table.
I wish my energy had held out long enough to till up two rows this evening. Today was supposed to be (according to some folks) a fabulous day to plant above-ground crops. It would've been fun to plant one row of peas today and another tomorrow, to see if the peas would acknowledge a preference.
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