The Garden Pea

This could be subtitled: The Garden Pea – Growing Peas and Garden History. Or The Garden Pea – 9 Facts for Great British Pea Week as that July event was the primary inspiration. Whichever, I have a mixture of fun facts, garden history and growing tips for you. Read on and enjoy (there’s more than 9 facts, but who’s counting!)

The Garden Pea in Ancient and Early History

Peas have been grown and eaten in Asia and Southern Europe for thousands of years. For example, peas found at Spirit Cave in Thailand were dated to 9750 BC. That makes them as ancient a cultivated crop as wheat and barley.

A number of jars of peas were found in the ruins of Troy by the archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann. The story goes that visitors could enjoy a dinner of these 3000 year-old legumes and they were still edible.

Roman and Medieval Peas

The Romans ate their peas both fresh ‘green’, and dried. Dried peas were one of the staple foods for the army and on sea journeys. Pliny noted some 37 different varieties of pea.

Although some will claim that the Romans brought peas to Britain, it is more likely that they were already being grown here. There have been finds to suggest that peas and vetches (wild plants, which include beans) were eaten. These peas would have been smaller and more bitter than the modern varieties. They would have been used in the peasants’ pottage as they were easy to grow and forage. ‘Pottage’ was like a thick soup or stew, filled with various vegetables and herbs in season and meat bones when available.

During the Middle Ages in Britain peas were mainly grown as a field crop. Although they are mentioned in monastic accounts as a garden crop and would likely have appeared in small domestic gardens too.

Tudor times and the Garden Pea becomes a fashion food

Sweeter tasting peas that were good to eat as a salad vegetable begin to be mentioned in Tudor times. They were considered a delicacy for the elite. Thomas Tusser in1573 mentions both field peas and refers to Rounceval peas grown in the garden as ‘dainties’. These would have been eaten as green, possibly immature peas and pods.

However, the first sweet tasting pea was developed in the 18th century by amateur plant breeder Thomas Knight of Downton, near Salisbury, England.

Heritage Varieties of the Garden Pea

The two oldest named pea varieties mentioned as being grown in England date from the late 15th century. Hastyngez, or Hastyz, peas were a large early variety, sown in November and overwintered.

Rounceval, or runcival, peas were named after the Abbey of Roncesvaulx in Navarre. They were grown in London at the Hospital of St Mary Rounceval near the present-day Charing Cross Station. These were very tall peas, needing stakes to support them.

1922 seed catalogue

More modern heritage varieties of the garden pea, from the 18th century onwards are worth growing. Not easy to buy in shops, you’ll enjoy eating a bit of history. And, if you save some of the peas as seeds for the following year, you’re also helping to keep that cultivar viable.

This selection is from those peas I’ve grown over the years; good taste, some highly decorative and all readily available from both mainstream and smaller seed outlets. Lesser known varieties can often be found on sale at plant fairs, agricultural and garden shows.

Alderman – heavy cropper, dark green pods; wrinkled seed; grows over 6 foot tall. Also known as Tall telephone, introduced by Carters of London in 1878
Golden sweet – a mangetout type; bicoloured purple flowers; lemon-yellow pods
Hurst green shaft – sweet, steady cropper; good for showing;18th century origin
Kelvedon wonder – heavy cropper; originally developed by Hurst & son late 19th / early 20th century; used for canning
Lincoln – very sweet, relatively small seeds; bred prior to 1908
Purple podded – pink/ purple flowers, the peas turn green when cooked or dried. Makes a decorative plant
Tom thumb – no need to support this pea variety; excellent for container growing. Eat the whole pod when young, just the seeds when mature

Healthy Peas

Peas are a good source of vitamin A, vitamin C, folate, thiamine (B1), iron and phosphorus.
They are rich in protein, carbohydrate and fibre and low in fat.
One serving of fresh garden peas contains as much vitamin C as two large apples.

Growing the Garden Pea

Peas give a very high yield for the space they occupy in the ground, which means they’re a good vegetable to grow in smaller gardens. Growing them vertically prevents them from sprawling over other plants, but what options are there for supporting them?

Shorter pea varieties are happy with ‘pea sticks’, usually hazel prunings, set 8 – 12” apart, depending on your plant spacings. For example, peas grown in rows in the ground may be more widely spaced than those grown by the square foot method. You can also use low netting supported by canes.

The netting could be made of twine, which makes life easier for you at the end of the growing season. Like the pea stems, natural twine is compostable so you can just throw it all into the compost heap instead of disentangling the tendrils.. (Although the twine should last 2-3 years, so you may like to wait until then).

Whatever you use, the peas will quickly cover their support.

Vertical supports for the taller pea give you more scope for inventiveness and decoration. Although you do have to be careful that they don’t shade nearby crops that need full sun. There are many decorative and practical supports to be bought, or you can DIY in a thrifty and recycling manner. You could use or make: –

trellis
obelisk
wires on fence
wigwam / tepee – a familiar method, especially on allotments
twine netting as above, but with taller posts
ladder, painted to be a focal point in the vegetable plot if you wanted

Shorter varieties will grow happily in hanging baskets. I have grown longer cultivars in hanging baskets, adding some canes for them to grow up. Downwards growth is encouraged by securing twine to the basket or under the plants and letting this hang loose.

The Garden Pea and Genetics

Gregor Mendel is a name many of us will recognise from school. He bred and hybridized peas to improve their crop bearing and revolutionised genetics as a result. Mendel used seven pea plant traits in his experiments: –

seed shape
seed colour
flower colour
flower position
stem length
pod shape
pod colour

But did you know that he conducted experiments on over 29,000 pea plants?!

The Frozen Pea

Clarence Birdseye who invented the ‘plate froster’ or fast freeze in 1924, thereby enabling first vegetables to be frozen for commercial use. Peas were the vegetable he was first successful with.

We’re the largest producer and consumer of frozen peas in Europe. The average Briton will eat nearly 9,000 peas each year – that makes you think!

There’s about 70,000 football pitches worth of pea farmland in Britain. Harvest time lasts 4-6 weeks, from early July to the middle of August. The peas are frozen within just 2 ½ hours of being picked, locking in all the nutrients.

However – peas were being frozen and stored as far back as the 17th century! They were packed in straw in boxes and placed in ice houses on large estates. Other summer delicacies such as strawberries were also stored this way to keep them fresh for later in the season.

Tinned Peas

Peas are also canned to preserve them. Again, they were one of the first vegetables – possibly the very first – to be successfully stored in tins. Although the Dutch navy had a form of canned food in the 1770s, the process was developed by Appert in order to feed Napoleon’s army. He was first successful in preserving vegetables in champagne bottles sealed with a cheese and lime mixture.

For many years they were a staple food for armies, navies and expeditions, before becoming a convenience food to have in the pantry. Frozen peas have now become the norm, but until freezers were a common feature in homes, tinned peas it was. But did you know that tin cans pre-dated the tin opener by about 50 years?

How do you eat your peas?

Or, how to stop them falling off your fork? Do you squash them with the back of your fork or scoop them up with a spoon? Or are you with the late, great Spike Milligan –

“I eat my peas with honey, I’ve done it all my life.
It makes the peas taste funny, but…
It keeps them on my knife.”

But however you’re eating them and whether you’re eating frozen peas or fresh mangetout that you harvested from the garden this morning – enjoy your Pisum sativum!

and finally

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And on that note, you can have a peek at the progress of my garden renovation, Spitfires and Slow Worms, on Instagram and Facebook You may even get to see it in person later this year / early 2025 as I’m planning a couple of workshops. I had hoped to do that already but house renovations have been as big a thing as garden reno so there hasn’t been the room. Keep an eye on the website and social media for an update.