Harvesting Yellow Peas and Peace

by Clinton Monchuk

I love fall and here is my daughter and I harvesting the peas and peace. I always enjoy the weekends when my kids can ride with me in the combine and we can talk one on one for hours without video games! Historically, the Western Canadian Prairies were not known for their pulse production, rather wheat consumed the majority of the landscape. This all changed with an organized effort to build newer, Canadian varieties of pulse crops. Growing pulses reduces fertilizer requirements for farmers because of their ability to generate (or ‘fix’) their own nitrogen. Plant breeding assisted in improving peas as in the past they were highly susceptible to disease, pea vines that would flatten down on the ground (making it almost impossible to harvest) and yields that seemed to be very unpredictable. We didn’t grow any peas on our farm until about 15 years ago, now it is a viable option in our cropping plans. So, raise your spoon to peas… please!