Purple hull peas ready to be harvested
Dan Spatz and Dr. Joe Black’s harvest of purple hull peas
Although it’s been a hot and dry summer, our peas have done exceptionally well. These peas will be served in school cafeterias to support the health and nutrition of school-aged kids around Central Arkansas. On Friday, we harvested an 11 inch pea pod which is the longest pod grown on the farm in the last two years. We are declaring this pea pod as a record to beat with upcoming harvests!
New additions to the HFAR farm include a processing facility that contains a cooler to store the peas and a sheller machine that separates the peas from their pods. This new equipment will help benefit the farm by allowing us to work more efficiently, and it will also help us expand the operation in years to come.
The new HFAR facility
This pea sheller machine removes the peas from their pods. Early models of pea shellers were powered by hand, via crank, but now they are powered by electricity, making them faster and more efficient!
Dan Spatz in the walk-in cooler with our harvest of peas