Normally we walk along the riverside between Haddington and East Linton in winter or spring but were glad today that we had our arms and legs covered as the path was fairly overgrown in places obscuring the river.  On the way we sampled some peas which were growing beside the path while two pea harvesters were in the field with trailers collecting the peas.   
The harvester crops a four-metre-wide strip of peas, vines and all. The threshing technology sees the peas separated from the vines, shelled from their pods, washed and delivered into a hopper in a matter of seconds.  From the hopper, the peas are transferred into a tractor-hauled trailer for transport, while the spent vines and pods are discharged onto the field where they will act as fertiliser for the following year’s crop.  The 30-tonne machine can do all this without damaging a single pea.