I confess that I’ve always loved peas. When I was a young child, frozen peas were sold as rectangular bricks that were a tad bigger than the diameter of Mama’s pot. A corner or two of peas flew off whenever she tried to force them into the boiling water. I ran around picking up and eating every runaway pea I could find.
During the mid-1690s, peas were all the rage around the court of Louis XIV, the Sun King. HIs main squeeze, Madame de Maintenon, tells us that they were “both a fashion and a madness” around the palace of Versailles. The craze continued well into the next century. Thomas Jefferson grew 30 varieties at Monticello.
(Photo: Green Giant will still sell you a brick of peas. Alternatively, you can grow your own.)
Peas are a cool-season vegetable. Plant the seeds in the garden 4 to 6 weeks before the average last date of frost. Our last frost is usually around April 15th. Soil temperatures need to be at least 40 degrees for germination. This goes for snap, snow and shelling peas.
Over the years I’ve heard folk wisdom about planting peas in conjunction with either Ash Wednesday or Good Friday, depending on the part of the country. Since Easter moves around from year to year, I am doubtful that this works. That being said, this year Easter is April 12 so both here and farther north, it is about in line with the 4 to 6 week window.
That's all master gardener Ann Bartlett's got to say this week. She faithfully writes a garden column four Saturdays a month, but when a month has got five she figures enough is enough and gives us a "tidbit" instead. February being the shortest month, and this being a leap year, Feb. 29 being a fifth Saturday is insult to injury and we are lucky even to get a couple of peas.
