Deep Dive: Peas

Whether shelling, snow, or snap peas, there is a type and variety for every garden.

There is nothing quite like munching on peas fresh from the garden. They’re one of my favorite vegetables, peas (Pisum sativum). As a kid, my father grew shelling peas on an acre for a local canning company. I remember shelling our own for the freezer, while sitting on the rickety back porch with my mother. The pea field was just on the other side of the white plank fence near us. Apparently, it wasn’t very profitable, because the only peas we grew after that were in our garden. Commercial production of peas involves combine harvesting, which today is preceded by “dessication”, i.e. the use of herbicides to reduce water levels. Combining is also more complex for peas, because it requires crop lifters to raise the vines so that the pea pods can be harvested. Dwarf varieties that ripen pods all at once are used for mechanized harvesting.

For me growing up, “peas” referred to the premature seeds, sweet and crunchy when raw. When it was pea season, we all got involved shelling, often in front of the TV in the evening. Later in life, when I had acquired a taste for Asian food, I learned about snow peas, the young, tender pods ideal in stir fries. In German, they are sometimes called “Kaiserschote” (emporor’s pod), because in the late Middle Ages only the nobility enjoyed them. The “Sun King” Louis XIV loved snow peas so much that he had a pea garden constructed at Louvre. The history of the pea is fascinating. You can find more about it at The Garden History Blog.

A mix of snow and snap peas in June. ‘Beauregarde’ is the only purple-hulled variety I know of that retains some of its dark color when cooked.

“How lucious lies the pea within the pod.”

Emily Dickinson

Although Dickinson is right about the luciousness of shelling peas in a pod, my favorite type is the snap pea. Like snow peas, the whole pod is edible, but they are much more substantial, with a crunchy, sweet goodness that even beats the first young shelling peas. Snap peas are versatile in the kitchen and higher-yielding than other types. If I am short on space, I only grow them. Cut into smaller pieces, they are a fine substitute for shelling peas in any recipe, and they also contain more fiber.

Snap peas on a trellis

The difference between snow peas and snap peas (fatter).