some one, some where, is allergic to peas.

This was the Big Thought for today.

Od was sitting at the kitchen table, reading and keeping me company whilst I organised breakfast.

She was reading another book about the Victorians, when she suddenly put the book down.

She said the above statement, and looked to me for confirmation. It apparently popped into her head, and was nothing to do with the Victorians.

I said that, honestly, I didn't know. I thought that she was probably right, as with so many people in the world, it was pea allergy in some one is a likely probability.

That isn't really an answer to satisfy Od though, "probably right" doesn't come close enough to being really, truthfully and factually correct.

So she googled, and found this. Which is where Od found out that legume allergy is the fifth most common type of food allergy in Spanish children.

You would have thought that there was the answer, and that we could all go back to our daily lives aware of the dangers of peas.

It was not the answer.

Not at all.

Why? Why are little Spanish children more likely to be allergic to peas than others? Diet? It goes on in the article to say that more legumes are consumed in a traditional Mediterranean diet but Od wasn't convinced that this was the answer - in fact she thought that if they ate more of them, then their bodies should be used to them and so surely allergies would be less likely.

Conspiracy theories abound.

So we went here, and read more. Then it is my turn to get weirded out, as we discover that peanuts are from the legume family.

I did not know this.

Then came the news that pea study played a key part in George Mendel's discoveries in genetics.

When we started home education, I had a plan in my head. The plan has adapted and changed as we've got further down this sometimes startling and often confusing path, but never did I expect to spend a day discussing the humble pea in quite so much detail.

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I was recently asked by the lovely Melitsa over at Raising Playful Tots to take part in her podcast series. You can find it here. I hope I don't normally sound like that! I only listened to the first five minutes because I was annoyed that I dropped all my "T's". As my children will tell you I am strict on enunciation, so to hear myself so wantonly abandoning this due to nerves was a little bit alarming.