Re: Beans are easy, peas are stupid!

boffer 4/14/2010, 11:04 am

Put me on the curious list too. I wonder if my stupid peas tendrils taste as good as the ones that know what to do?!

ander217 4/14/2010, 11:20 am

Some pea varieties are vining or climbing. They grow very tall (6-9') and have to be trellised. The old Telephone Pole and Alderman varieties come to mind, as well as the original Sugar Snap peas. Other varieties grow short vines, sometimes called bush form, and will grow against some brush stuck in the ground, or against string that has been tied around short stakes. They will also support each other when sowed thickly in rows about six inches apart. Sometimes they fall over, but it's usually when the vines have started to die anyway.

Bush varieties which come to mind are Little Marvel, Lincoln, and the smooth-seeded early Alaska pea. Some shorter varieties of snap peas include Sugar Ann and Sugar Daddy.

(Just don't confuse garden peas with flowering sweet peas which have toxic seeds.)

Retired Member 1 4/14/2010, 11:21 am

boffer wrote:Put me on the curious list too. I wonder if my stupid peas tendrils taste as good as the ones that know what to do?!

I can just see Boffer with scissors in hand: "OK you stupid tendrils, attach or else!" Beans are easy, peas are stupid! - Page 2 Icon_twisted

ander217 4/14/2010, 11:22 am

LOL, Boffer.

Yes, stupid peas tendrils should be edible, too, but maybe only by stupid people?

(Send me some and I'll let you know.)

martha 4/14/2010, 11:24 am

you cut off the top 5-6 inches of ones that look good - and preferably intelligent. You can put them in salads, or use them as a garnish. They can be cooked, but they lose their visual appeal, and they are so tender there is no need to do so.

My husband makes sweet pea ravioli, and puts a few tendrils on top. You could use them as a garnish on salmon (all edible garnishes of course - I think it is really fun to dress up food, but not just for show.)

Boffer, someone did raise a good question - what kind of peas are not climbing?

ETA: This is a popular post this morning, so lots of people wrote while I was composing. Cooking in stir fries would be yummy. My guess is that you would still add them near the end, since they would take very little cooking.

boffer 4/14/2010, 11:26 am

ander217 wrote:hey grow very tall (6-9') and have to be trellised. The old Telephone Pole and Alderman varieties come to mind, as well as the original Sugar Snap peas.

You've been peeking at the plant markers in my boxes! I've got all three. Maybe the easy answer is growing shorter types?!

ander217 4/14/2010, 11:30 am

Oh, Cathyegar, I forgot to mention that we're talking about English peas, not field peas. I see you are from the South, too, so were you maybe thinking about blackeyes or crowders?

ander217 4/14/2010, 4:37 pm

I'm going to start this as a new topic in the food forum.

silverbug 4/18/2010, 8:20 am

Pea shoots are becoming very popular at farmer's markets, and I was turned onto them by my CSA last year. I am still a member this year, so, I'm a bit scared of all the cooking and whatnot I may have ahead of me with doing the garden AND have a half share in the CSA. Anyway, the Hmong folks who do the work and convinced the owners to start including pea shoots in the box, essentially use an entire section of the pea planting for shoots only. You want to snip them very young, when they're just coming up, and you keep cutting back the tender shoots and tendrils when they're young...you can do this the entire duration of the growth cycle, but obviously, you will never get the peas if you harvest shoots continually. They are DELICIOUS. Tastes just like the peas, and they're phenomenal with some of the fresh peas tossed in with a light vinegrette.

ander217 4/20/2010, 9:19 am

Thanks for the info. I didn't know that normally the whole top of the plant is cut off for pea tendrils. One could take longer stems that way.

We just cut off a few branches here and there from our plants and get basically the same thing. The stems that are snipped often branch and make more stems. I may have to experiment and see whether plants that are snipped yield less than those which are not, but I do not think it affects them if only a stem or two are snipped from each plant, and since they often branch into two or three stems, it may actually increase production.

I've found that once the plant matures, the leaves and tendrils toughen so snip your tendrils before the plant produces peas.

Cropper2 4/27/2010, 5:56 pm

Hi. I grow peas and sugar snap peas and I use the nylon trellis netting as recommended in the book. I built my frame out of galvanized plumbing pipes anchored on rebar and the peas happily grow up the netting and nothing - not even pumpkins - seem to be too heavy for that pipe! That has worked very well for me.

LupinFarm 4/28/2010, 7:30 pm

This may sound weird...

but last year I used electric fencing tape, its 1" wide and used for horse pasture usually. I had some laying around and used it to make a trellis and my peas clung to it like crazy clinging things.

LaFee 5/26/2010, 2:55 pm

Okay...apparently French peas are no brighter than American peas, because mine were reaching for everything EXCEPT the bamboo teepees I'd made (A bamboo pole in each corner of the square, and tied together at the top with a few rounds of twine).

So I went back for a tutorial....I took the twine and tied it off to one of the legs of the teepee, then went two times around the next leg, and so on...spiraling it up the teepee as I went. I made four 'rungs' on the teepee ladders this way, then tucked all the peas inside so they were leaning on the twine rungs.

So far, so good...they've latched onto the bottom run, and are now reaching for the bamboo and the next rung higher (2-3" above the first)

(and tutorial is a play on words, too...the French word for a plant state is a tuteur....so apparently we have to teach *everything* how to grow!)

**camprn** 5/30/2010, 4:08 pm

Click this link.

Megan 6/17/2010, 6:35 pm

Or perhaps I am. Argh....

I've been very proud of the fact that my pole limas topped my 6.5-ft trellis and have been tasting the breeze. Well, the wind bit back and broke the two tallest bean vines against the top of the trellis. One was snapped clear through and the other one was enough that the top was beyond saving. ARGH! Sad

I have lashed a bamboo rod and some twine to that side of the trellis for the remaining beans.

The weird part is that my other pole bean has reached the top of its own trellis, too, but it decided to follow it sideways instead of waving in the breeze. (Maybe that one is smarter??)

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Beans are easy, peas are stupid!