Product Description
Dwarf Grey Podded Peas (Pisum sativum) are the shortest and earliest producing of the edible podded peas. Plant them early in the spring. They will grow prolifically until the summer heat arrives. You can also plant them in late fall, after the heat subsides, for a fall harvest. Podded peas are sweet and crunchy and can be enjoyed whole as a snack, in salads, or in a stir-fry. These heirloom podded pea seeds are part of The Seeds That Built America collection by Harvesting History and are made in the USA!
Planting and Care
Plant your Heirloom Dwarf Grey Podded Pea Seeds early in the spring, as soon as the ground can be worked. Podded peas like a location with full sun. Plant them at a depth of 1.5 inches and spaced 6 inches apart, in rows 2 feet apart. Peas thrive in moist, cool, well-drained, loose soil rich in organic matter, with a slightly acidic to neutral pH of 6.0 to 7.5. Amend the soil with compost or well-rotted manure. Sow them in early spring in northern climates and fall through early winter in the south. Dwarf pea plants produce vines that grow 15 to 30 inches.
Podded peas germinate in about 7-10 days. When seedlings are 2 inches tall, thin them, leaving 6 inches between plants. Peas reach maturity in about 60 days.
Inspiration
Beans are probably native to eastern Europe or Western Asia and are one of humankind's oldest cultivated plants. Evidence of peas has been found in lake mud beneath the site of houses built by Bronze Age Swiss lake dwellers, dating to over 5000 years ago. Peas have also been found at a prehistoric cave site in Hungary that is believed to be much older than the Swiss site.
Interestingly, no evidence of peas has been found at ancient Egyptian sites, but peas have been found in the ruins of the ancient site of Troy. The Aryans of Western Asia introduced the pea to the Greeks and Romans, but neither civilization held the pea in high regard. It was only after the Norman Conquest of England that peas appeared in this part of the world, and then with little note until the 16th century, when they were described in detail by the French. However, by the end of the 16th century, botanists in Belgium, Germany, and England were describing many kinds of peas, including tall and dwarf varieties with white, yellow, and green seed colors. The wild pea, which no longer exists, was probably indigenous to middle Asia, from northwest India through Afghanistan to the Near East and to the plateau and mountains of Ethiopia.
In all of these areas, today, wild peas of cultivated species have been found, as well as a remarkable diversity of cultivated species.
Eighteenth-century Williamsburg was the home of many ardent gardeners and plant collectors who often exchanged seeds with fellow enthusiasts in Great Britain. Gardeners obtained their seeds from store merchants or from traveling seedsmen. Today, the Colonial Williamsburg seed program continues the tradition by offering many varieties grown in the 18th century.
