Fresh peas are some of the tastiest treats the garden has to offer and now is the time to plant them. And don’t worry, if you haven’t gotten them in the ground yet, there’s still plenty of time. In Britain, most pea varieties can be sown any time from February until the end of June. Since peas take up a bit of space, it’s best to think a bit about just what kind of pea you’d like to eat.
Mangetout
Mangetout produce flat pods and are best known for their use in stir-fries. They produce tender, flat pods that are eaten whole. The peas inside are tiny, but that’s all right since the pod itself tastes great (raw and cooked). Just make sure to remove the strings along the edges before eating. Bonus: mangetout also produce the most tender vine tips, which are great added to salads or stir-fries.
Grow Seed offers the Oregon Sugar Pod mangetout pea, a dwarf variety that doesn’t need much trellising.
Snap Peas
If you’re looking for the sweet, crunchy peas that fill out some, but are still eaten whole, then you’ll be wanting to plant snap peas. Not only do snap peas taste amazing (raw or stir-fried), they actually yield more food per square foot than the other types of peas. A great choice for a garden with limited space (though most varieties will need staking). Like snow peas, most varieties of snap peas also have a string that needs to be removed.
Here at Grow Seeds we offer the Sugar Snap variety and we guarantee you, you’ll be hard pressed to make it to the kitchen without eating these tasty morsels first.
Garden Peas/English Peas
If you’re looking for sweet peas—peas that are eaten without the pod—you’ll want to plant standard garden peas. These peas are super sweet, can be eaten raw or cooked, but need to be shelled first. (These are the kind you can find in the grocery freezer section.) Just be sure to not let your garden peas get too big—they get pretty starchy if left on the vine too long.
Grow Seeds offers two varieties of garden peas: Waverex and Douce Provence. Waverex is an early petite pea that is great for containers. It should be planted in February. Douce Provence is a dwarf pea that is sown March-July for a main crop or October-December for over-wintering.