Go on, have a giggle ... it’s really good for you S

PEAS in the pod are in the shops at the start of their very short season.

And with them come memories of childhood from the days before frozen foods. When few families had a fridge or freezer and most used a larder or the coolness of cellar steps as a place to store perishable foodstuffs. Tinned garden peas were available but never tasted the same and still don’t.

My earliest memories are of helping prepare Sunday lunch with my mother or grandma and being given the job of podding the peas.

The temptation was to eat them as you went along and, when it was considered I had scoffed enough, I was turfed out of the house to sit on the back step and enjoy the aroma of a roasting joint like a Bisto kid.

Back then, I wondered who actually podded the peas to put them in tins.

Did a farmer employ thousands of children like me on an eat-all-you-can basis as long as they kept filling the bowls?

The season only lasts a few weeks but companies like Birds Eye, that has the biggest pea factory in the world at Hull, ensure a frozen supply is now available all year round.

“Give peas a chance,” sang The Beatles, and the British have made it their favourite veg, with the UK the largest producer of peas in Europe.

But how do they get them HEFFIELD is the laughter capital of the nation, according to a survey by Ronseal.

Citizens of the steel city enjoy the most laughs, averaging 16 a day or 5,840 a year. This is a disgrace.

Research shows that children laugh up to 400 times a day compared to that measly 16 average. And other cities are lagging behind even that low total.

If you take out eight hours for sleeping, this means that children laugh 25 times an hour. Which is why I like hanging out with my grandkids.

It’s also why I embrace my second childhood and have chosen friends who are just as daft and good for a giggle.

Last night Maria and I went out and beat the Sheffield daily average in the first 20 minutes,

Let’s face it, life’s too short to be glum and laughter really is good for you. I researched it on Google, so it must be true.

Laughter boosts the immune system to block coughs and colds, lowers stress, helps ward off anxiety, reduces pain, releases feel-good endorphins into the system, improves your social life, helps relieve depression, lowers blood pressure and improves breathing.

A good guffaw (or even five) can act as a work-out by exercising the out of the pod in such quantities?

They are harvested in a machine called a viner that picks up the plants and shakes them to separate pod from peas. Then it’s off to the Hull factory for instant freezing.

I doubt many of the peas in the pod that are now in the shops are destined to be cooked.

My wife and I consumed half a bag sitting in the car outside the store where we’d bought them. They were so tasty that Maria went back and bought another two bags for later.

A ritual podding and delicious taste that revive memories to enjoy every year. diaphragm, contracting the abdominal muscles and working the shoulders. Forget the gym and have a laugh. The survey showed we at least have the basics right: 20% enjoy a laugh at their own expense, as well as poking fun at their friends, and agree that a night of fun was as good as medicine to make them feel better; and 80% declared the UK had the best sense of humour in the world.

A Ronseal spokesman said: “Banter is a part of British culture and whether we are making fun of situations, our friends or our own predicaments, no-one does it quite like we do.”

The trouble is, we don’t laugh enough.

So it’s time to make the effort and give yourself a daily dose of daftness and giggles.

Watch Delboy fall through the bar flap, the Two Ronnies discussing fork handles, Peter Kay doing dad dancing at a wedding, Morecambe saying to Wise as the ambulance goes by: “He’ll not sell