Q: Where can I find a tool to zip open blackeyed peas? My Dad took us to the Farmers Market when I was a kid and we bought all kinds of vegetables to blanche and freeze. Dad had a small wooden hand-held tool that had a hole with a sharp point that you pushed the pea through that would slit open the pod to release the peas inside. I’m growing back-eyed peas in my garden for the first time and hope to get enough to put some up in the freezer and hope to find this handy little tool.

A: When I was a kid, we had a little spring metal thing that worked OK for small jobs but we occasionally used a roller gizmo driven by our kitchen mixer for larger batches.

Your dad might have built his own sheller using these plans:

World’s Simplest Pea Sheller

Or you can buy an electric model for considerably more: Lee’s Pea Sheller