Old-fashioned Bean and Pea Shellers

By Terry (Terry)
July 24, 2010

On Saturdays, we like to mix things up with something a little out-of-the-ordinary. This week's spotlight is on garden tools, and we're starting out with a unique tool that is a throwback to an earlier era. You've probably seen apple and potato peelers, cherry pit and strawberry cap removers. But unless you live in the southern U.S., you may have not seen a bean or pea sheller. Read on to learn more...

Several years ago, Bud generously shared his detailed plans for a bean sheller.  These plans draw in numerous visitors to Dave's Garden, and today we say "thank you!" to Bud for sharing them with us and so many gardeners around the world.  If you've never had purple-stained fingers from hand-shelling purple-hull or black-eyed peas, a sheller might not seem like an important tool, but to those who harvest and hull a lot of field peas, you'll appreciate the convenience of a sheller. If you have a sheller, or have memories of hulling field peas and dried beans, please share your stories in the comments section below!

One of the  comments we hear frequently about these plans is that the measurements are a little hard to read from the scanned images, so we've re-typed them here to make it easier to read them. Here is the bill of materials from page 1. 

About Terry   Terry Lea has been with Dave's Garden since January 2001. She is the managing editor and an avid gardener on her property in middle Tennessee.

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Discussion about this article:

Subject Topic Starter Replies Views Last Post picture of sheller??? macnuttian 1 23 Jul 27, 2010 6:34 PM directions? jazzy1okc 1 18 Jul 27, 2010 4:52 AM Pea Sheller BartCanada 0 25 Jul 26, 2010 9:04 AM

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