Langreck: Two peas in a pod

Growing up in the country, I have learned many valuable life lessons, ranging from how to care for livestock to the importance of weeding a garden on a weekly basis to make sure the weeds don’t choke out the growing plants.

Most of my life lessons came from my parents who were raised on farms themselves and wanted to instill in my sisters, brother and me the importance of hard work, family traditions and a passion for agriculture.

However, there are a few of my childhood life lessons that I learned from my grandma.

My grandma was an extraordinary woman that grew up in the Great Depression and taught me the importance of saving every penny and to always hide some cookies away for a rainy day.

Another lesson that she taught me was how to pull peas pods off the vines and then shell them, making sure the peas went in the bowl and did not bounce off the porch and fall in the dirt.

I remember countless summers when my grandma would come over to our house and tell my siblings and me to go out to the back porch, where she would have placed buckets and metal pans.

Before long, my dad would drive the lawnmower up to the patio and unhook our old flatbed wagon filled with countless vines with pea pods needing to be picked off.

I will be the first to admit that sitting around under the hot Indiana sun, picking hundreds of pea pods off their vines was not exactly the highlight of my summer.

However, as I grew older, and slightly less fidgety, I would come to not mind this chore as much because I had the opportunity to sit with my grandma and listen to stories about her childhood.

After all the pods were picked from the plants, my grandma would then move to the patio table and begin shelling the peas. If there is one thing I disliked more than picking pea pods from the vines it was shelling them.

No matter how hard I tried — and, believe me, I tried — my hands would always be stained green and smell like peas for several days, which was a problem for me because I detested the smell and taste of peas.

But, as time went on, I eventually didn’t mind it as much because I came to understand that, even though I probably complained a majority of the time I was helping, my grandma loved spending that time with me.

This is a life lesson that just came full circle for me the other day when my mom was sitting on the back porch with a pile of pea vines.

I grabbed a chair and was about to sit down to help her when my daughters ran up to her and asked what she was doing and if they could help.

She showed them how to carefully pull the pods off the vines so as not to break the pods open and put them in the bucket by her feet.

I am not exactly sure how much help the girls were to my mom, but my heart filled with joy and a sense of family as I watched them giggle and pull pods off the vines and show them to my mom before putting them in the bucket.

I hope one day I have the opportunity to share this memorable pastime with my grandkids, as well.