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~ Seed for PEAS ~

One of you wrote across your order 'GARDENERS NEED PEAS!!!' a few years ago.

We couldn't agree more, and now we're definitely getting there, after our latest trials.

We have become interested in the possibilities of old-fashioned smooth-seeded peas,
as well as the wrinkle-seeded varieties now more commonly grown .

We offer both types here. Smooth peas do go starchy more quickly once the pods get big,
and so have to be picked young & small for a good sweet flavour.
But they have a big advantage too - they are much less likely to rot in cold wet soil, so you can risk a much earlier sowing.

We now like to sow smooth-seeded pea varieties for our early crops, and then wrinkle-seeded ones for the maincrop once the soil has warmed up. In warmer areas sow smooth-seeded varieties in late autumn for early crops the next year.

Here are some of both kinds for you to try, with dwarf and climbing varieties listed separately,
and also a couple of excellent mange-tout varieties.

Dwarf Pea Seed

Hatif d'Annonay
An improved early pea from France - the name means 'Early Pea from Annonay', and this is a very popular variety of ours.

It does what it says! The small bushes really don't seem to need any support and do very quickly load up with lots of nice dark green pods. For those of you who have problems with maggots attacking your peas, dwarf plants can more easily be covered with netting to keep the pea moths away.

Smooth seeds, so can be sown pretty early, but must pick small for sweetness.

Ideal for a first-early sowing.

Order PeHA - 200 seed £1.99

Oskar VERY, VERY EARLY

We didn't have lots this year and the Oskar has all sold out now, please see its excellent sister variety Junos below, which is just as absurdly early but has slightly bigger plants.

Junos

Junos is a dwarf plant to about 3ft tall that makes extremely sweet peas right at the start of the season.  It has nice dark healthy foliage and bears a decent number of pods.

You'll want to grow some other peas as well, for it comes so early that it finishes by the start of summer, but it is great for delicious peas before any others crop.

Order PeJu - 200 seed £1.69

Charmette

Our new pea for 2012! “Charmette” was first given to us by Andrew and Sarah of the Seed Ambassadors Project. We loved it the first time we grew it but it has taken several years to get it into the catalogue.

Here it is now - a truly gourmet ‘petit pois’ type of pea , making huge numbers of pods crammed full of very tender little peas, meant to be picked young and cooking only lightly. Exceptionally tender and well-flavoured.

This ‘charming’ variety needs little or no support if grown in double rows as the plants only grow to around 2ft tall.

Order PeCh - 200 seed £1.69

Climbing Pea Seed

Serpette Guilloteau
A traditional climbing pea, to 1.5 m high, with curved pods of fat green peas.

The name is derived from an old French word for a special type of pruning knife, reflecting the remarkable sickle-shape of the pods!

Classed as ‘semi - early’ this makes a good second-early or maincrop pea. It has smooth seeds, so it can be sown early, but pick small for sweetness.

Fast growing, curved pods, slightly flattened sweet peas.

Order PeSG - 240 seed £1.99

Telephone Pea (very tall)

Now this is a well known variety that has stood the test of time. A tall vine that produces mid-season, here we recommend it as an early-maincrop pea. For us it grows to a good 6 feet tall, though others have written in to say that it gets taller (up to 9 or even 10ft!) for them.

Although various sub-strains have been developed over the years, its hasn't really changed from the description of 'Carter's Telephone Pea' in Vilmorin's famous book of 1885 on vegetable gardening.

It has heavy yields of large pods with sweet, non-starchy peas inside. We find that the pods always swell up a bit before the peas fill out, so don't be fooled into picking too early! This year they were ready to eat starting in mid-July, on over the summer, which is pretty good given what a cold year it has been.

Wrinkled seed, stays sweet longer in pods - but don't sow in cold wet conditions.

Medium tall vine, use as maincrop.

Order PeTE - 240 seed £2.08

(And yes, to those that are wondering about the dating on this, we wondered too if this was quite right, but we checked, and the word 'telephon' (without the e) was in use by 1854 and the first patent was in 1876 by Bell, although his work was preceded by several other people. The real question is, of course, why should Carter want to call his pea after an effect first noticed when people were given electro-shock therapy in 1846? (their screams were transmitted over the wires they were holding). . . . They are a very good pea nonetheless!

"Champion of England " Tall Pea: NEW! - VERY RARE
Our new pea in 2010. The conclusion of a 4-year rescue project, here is your chance to grow a traditional UK variety that has been commercially extinct for years.

Champion of England is a really good, traditional tall pea to 8 - 10 ft, dating from the 1840's. But it's been unavailable , other than seedbanks, for a long time now. A few people sent us small samples of seed from time to time, but we couldn't get them to grow. All that changed in 2007 though, when Robert Woodbridge got in touch with a new strain of family-saved seed from Lincolnshire in the 1940's.

It grew really well, and more importantly, was true to the old descriptions. It was fantastic - the only reason tall peas have been abandoned commercially is that you can't harvest them with machines. But for home gardeners, they give a great return for a small space.

So, after a few seasons, we have bulked it up from his original handful, and have a very precious few sacks of seed now that you can try.

We'll let him give the history in his own words:

For us this was an amazing find. It's the genuine tall strain, well maintained over the years, and we even know the location it came from. We think Robert's grandmother would have been pleased to know her seeds have saved this variety for gardeners everywhere.

Practically extinct, other than this harvest - hence the smaller packet. But 100 seeds should be plenty to be honest, as it is really productive.

Order PeCE - 100 seed for £2.45

~ Mange-tout Pea Seed ~

'Golden Sweet' Yellow-Podded Mange-tout pea

This is a beautiful yellow podded pea that is very sweet eaten fresh or cooked. A rare variety, so do keep your own seed if you like it.

We have grown many mange-tout peas (if you've not tried them, you eat the wide flat pods) over the years but this one has always stood out head and shoulders above the others. It is a superb mange-tout pea, with beautiful yellow pods, tall productive vines, and a delicious crisp flavour.

The flowers are purple, & the pods are a wonderful lemon yellow colour, so we actually grow it in our front garden as a decoration! The yellow pods easy to see for picking, and great both raw in salads, or cooked as a vegetable.

Order PeGO - 100 seed £1.82

'Bijou' Giant Sugar Pea (HUGE edible-pods)
This sort of pea - real old fashioned Giant Sugar Peas with 7 inch edible pods - used to be very popular but are now almost completely extinct.  The huge pods (the peas inside the pod in the photo are full-size) are sweet and juicy, the children just munch them straight off the plant.

Here it is then, after a 5 year project starting with a handful of peas found in a jar in a cellar, this is our own reintroduction of a proper Giant Sugar Pea as used to be grown in the 1880’s.

It matches the original description and engravings perfectly, even down to the pattern on the seeds and the number of seeds per gram.

We hope you enjoy it! You eat the whole pod raw or cooked. They're sweet and tender - & so huge that just a few pods are enough for salad or supper.

We've had really good feedback about Bijou since re-introducing it, with several people saying they would only grow this variety from now on.

Very rare, practically extinct. The pods are so big they're just silly.

Order PeBi - approximately 100 seed £2.65

~ Saving Pea Seed ~

Peas don't in general cross very easily, so you can save seed from several varieties without worry. Here is our 'Golden Sweet' harvest.

But be sure that you don't plant types with similar-coloured seeds next to each other, otherwise you'll not be sure which plant they come from!

The tricky bit is getting your pea plants picked when they are fairly dry - we hang ours on an indoor washing line if it's rainy!

Then just stomp the peas out of their pods.

More detailed seed-saving instructions are included with your seeds, so you can do all this yourself at home.