We grew purple hull peas this year and love them. The one thing we don't love is hulling them. It takes forever so now I am considering getting a pea sheller.

My research online seems to indicate that the "starter" sheller is the "Mr. Pea Sheller". I found it for $30 (plus $7 shipping) at http://www.antonline.com/p_600... and am thinking of ordering it.

Has anyone used this? Or are there other recommendations?

I had one about five or six years ago. I built it into a box and hooked up an electric hand mixer to it so I could have both hands free for adding the peas.

It worked pretty well for cowpeas, so-so for butter beans. I enjoyed it but it only lasted two seasons.

Now I have a larger version, electric, also called "Mr.Pea Sheller" (what's up with that, eh?). Although it was just over $200.00 I went for it knowing I could grow enough peas and then sell enough peas for it to pay for itself. The prices range up to $289 depending on the company. I found Fleming Outdoors to have the best price plus Customer Service (I contacted them, the owner replied) was the greatest.

If you are wanting to stay away from reliance on electric I have no doubt this one could be rigged up to operate by hand or even bicycle because it operates on a pulley system.

Shoe

Found the link to what I bought. (Notice it has written on it "U Shell It" but they listed it as Mr Pea Sheller. Hmmm.)
http://www.flemingoutdoors.com...

Shoe

Thanks Shoe.

So, since you have had both the cheaper one and the nicer one, can you say that there is a huge difference? Does the $200 one really perform beautifully compared to the cheaper one?

Oh yeh, without a doubt.

They both will shell fine; the bigger one handled butterpeas and butter beans better than the smaller one. For cowpeas they both worked equally, taking into consideration their sizes...the smaller one only allowing so many beans at a time through while the bigger one you can use the whole rollers width.

I liked the smaller one and even contemplated getting another one the year after it broke but decided to bite the bullet and go for the larger one. Hah, I even figured out***thinking; "hmm, plenty of room around here to easily grow peas, garden peas followed by cowpeas/butterbeans; if I sell shelled peas for $5.00/bag and it takes 3 pounds unshelled to equal one pound shelled I need to sell 46 bags to pay for the sheller and that means 136 pounds unshelled and a bushel weight is approx 25-30 pounds per bushel...."

See, I'm such a miser I need to know I have a way to pay for something before I buy it! :>)

Maybe ya'll should try the smaller one, it sure beats hand shelling if you've done it that way all your lives. That way when you move on up to the bigger one you'll sure have an appreciation for it, probably both!

Shoe (off to dig onions)

I really appreciate the help, shoe. Sending you an acorn as a tip.

I'll talk to Trish and we'll figure out what to do. This morning I learned our friendly white-tail deer came by and ate all our purple pods that were slated for harvest this morning, so... maybe the cheaper one will indeed be the right choice for 2011.

Thanks again!

Dang deer, they did that to me one year, the day before I was going to pick. I nearly blamed it on a human because they picked only the pods, leaving the plants themselves alone. Then I saw their foot prints.

This year I've resorted to using Liquid Fence and am please with it. It really has done wonders keeping the deer off plants. (It doesn't seem to deter my resident whistle pig though!)

Thanks for the acorn!
Shoe

We usually don't have deer problems here, but this drought has caused the wildlife to get a lot bolder in search of food and water.