richardbenson.com

THE SCENT ALERTED us first; a tangy, sweet smell in the warm summer-evening air through the car air ducts as we sped along a Lincolnshire lane one night in early August. Then we saw the lights, dozens of creamy white dots sending shadows criss-crossing a field ahead of us. There was no mistaking the operation - it was pea-harvesting time. “Come on,” I said to a bemused Kevin, who thought we were looking for a pub. “This’ll be good.” Pea vining is one of the most dramatic farming activities. Peas must be harvested and delivered to the processing plant within hours of ripening, and so teams of harvesting machines, tractors and trailers, and mechanics’ trucks travel around like circuses, working all day and night to ensure deadlines are met. As we watched men and machines swarm in the field, I remembered watching pea harvests when I was a boy. “Don’t you find it an exciting sight?” I asked Kevin. “Steady on,” he said•