14d • Practical Living Skills
Harvesting Cowpeas
Who has harvested cowpeas. What harvest advice do you have... and tricks or short cuts to make it easier. Below is what I follow for most beans. , hope this helps.
Fully mature cowpeas can be harvested for fresh shelling or dried for pantry storage and next year’s seed. The steps depend on whether they are still soft or already hard.
1. Pick and separate by condition. Harvest after dew has dried. Support the vine while picking, or snip the pod stems. Keep plump, flexible pods separate from brown or tan, brittle pods. Pick dry pods before they split and scatter their seeds.
2. Handle soft peas as fresh produce. Shell the plump pods promptly. Refrigerate the peas while waiting to cook them, or blanch and freeze them for later. Fully grown peas can still contain too much moisture for shelf storage.
3. Finish drying the dry-harvest batch. Spread mature pods in a shallow layer on screens or trays under cover, with good airflow. Avoid deep piles and closed buckets. In humid fall weather, bring them inside rather than repeatedly exposing them to dew or rain.
4. Shell and sort. Once the pods are brittle, put them in an old pillow case and slap the pillow case on the floor repeatedly. The pods will break open easily, you can then pull the shells out for compost and the peas are left on the bottom of the pillow case. Sort through the peas and discard moldy peas and those with obvious insect damage.
5. Dry thoroughly before sealing. Spread the shelled peas in a single layer with airflow. They should be hard throughout, without a soft center. A hard surface alone does not establish safe storage moisture. If you are uncertain about dryness, you can freeze rather than risk sealing damp peas in a pantry container although pretty easy to tell when they are well dry. Keep dried peas in a cool, dry place.
6. Set aside planting seed. Choose fully mature, sound peas from healthy, productive plants. Finish drying them on a rack, then label the variety and harvest year and store cool and dry.
7. After your final picking, cut healthy vines at soil level and leave the roots in place. Chop the tops for surface mulch or compost them. This returns the remaining plant material to the soil.
Prioritize gathering mature pods before wet weather or frost damages them.
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Harvesting Cowpeas
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