Giving peas a chance…

For someone that doesn’t normally eat a lot of peas I seem to suddenly have a lot in my seed stash for planting in 2019. I do have childhood memories of eating peas straight out of the pods on my Mum’s allotments and enjoying them this way much more than eating them cooked and served with my Sunday lunch a couple of hours later. In later life shelling them seemed to be a bit of a faff and why bother when you could either have mange tout or sugar snaps – or frozen peas. And I do like a tub of mushy peas with my fish ‘n’ chips 😉

I didn’t have much success this year – possibly due to the hot weather – with the varieties I grew: Charmette (dwarf petit pois), Rosakrone (tall)  and Golden Sweet (Mange tout), all from Real Seeds. The latter was particularly attractive though and did crop for a long time even though I indulged my inner child and very few pods made it home 😉 I still have seeds of all these varieties left over and will give them all another try.

Rosakrone

Kent Blue

Roi des Conserves

Charmette

Doug Bray of Grimsby

Parsley Pea

To these I have added Roi des Conserves from D T Brown. This is a tall variety and as the name suggests is for canning or for saving as dried peas. I was also taken by a couple of varieties on offer through the Heritage Seed Library: Kent Blue, which can be eaten as a mange-tout or allowed to mature; and Parsley pea, which produces a mass of tendrils and so I will be growing primarily for pea-shoots. And then to add to my collection the ‘freebie’ surprise packet of seeds from the HSL was yet another pea! Doug Bray of Grimsby is another tall variety producing regular peas.

So a variety of types which should give me a continuous harvest for several months – and will also provide some beautiful flowers to rival some of my neighbours sweet peas with the bonus of an edible crop too 🙂

STOP PRESS:

My first order from Hodmedod came this week and I must have had peas on the brain because amongst the items I ordered are a selection of pea related lovelies: Tinned and dried Carlin peas, Kabuki marrowfat peas, roasted peas (horseradish flavoured!) and yellow pea flour. I shall probably have a go at sprouting (& possibly growing on ) the marrowfat and Carlin peas just to see what happens. Watch this space!