Peas

I have saved flower seeds before, mostly just easy stuff, like cosmos, and Marigolds, stuff like that.  I had an exceptional pea harvest this year.  There were tons of wonderful sweet peas.  Now it is starting to get hot, and the peas wont last much longer.  I would love to save some pea seed the the fall.  I don't know when, or how.  Do I have to leave them on the vine until the pod is dry, or can I pick it sooner.  Is it OK to pick and dry the very large peas that don't taste good any more.  It seems like it should be so easy, but I have so many questions.  I think it is why I haven't done it before now.  Even with flowers I'm never sure of the best time to collect the seeds.  Would love any and all wisdom and advise.  Thank you.

Collect the seeds at any time after the pods turn leathery, ideally you would want them crispy but in my climate that doesn't happen before they rot so I pick when they start to feel like leather and then dry them the rest of the way indoors. The overlarge peas that have gone mealy are still a few weeks away from being ready to collect as seed.

Skandi Rogers wrote: The overlarge peas that have gone mealy are still a few weeks away from being ready to collect as seed.

Well, if the conditions of the OP are warm and dry, this stage might be god for collecting peas as seeds. I had it happen sometimes that I picked peas that were a little past sweet, going, mealy, and some that I dropped accidentally started sprouting in the bed. That means they are mature enough to sprout, so the only critical thing would be to get them dry enough for storage.

In my ecosystem, pea weevils have already infected the seeds before harvest. Best practice for me is to get the seeds picked as soon as possible (too tough to eat stage is fine), and get them dried down, and into the freezer in a timely fashion. That will kill the weevils while they are tiny, and before they do much damage to the seed. To avoid freeze damage, the seeds should be dry enough to shatter when hit with a hammer. Seeds that are still too damp are smushed.