Growing Peas

We used to grow peas for Green Giant. It was always fun to see the parade of combines and trucks coming down the road to harvest our crop. They would pull into the field and continue working round the clock until they were all harvested.   At night, the field was lit up with lights from combines slowly making their way across the field and dumping into the big trucks that were continually hauling back and forth to the processing plant. They needed to work as quickly as possible as half of the sugar content of peas will turn to starch within six hours if kept at room temperature after harvest.

Though we no longer grow peas for Green Giant, we do grow peas for our own enjoyment.  Peas are a rich source of many nutritious properties. Vitamins A, B and C, as well as calcium, iron and zinc are some of the vitamins and minerals found in peas. They’re easy to prepare and taste wonderful eaten straight from the garden raw, in salads or cooked in your favorite stir-fry.

When growing your own peas, be sure you are planting the correct variety.  Edible pea pods such as snow peas and sugar snap peas are good for stir fries and salads.  Garden peas, also referred to as English peas, need to be shelled and are good for fresh eating.  A friend of ours learned this the hard way, she grew the English Peas and when harvest time came, her pods were definitely not edible!

If you are looking to start planting your own peas, or if you are looking for recipes that include peas, be sure to check out our book  Eating Pure in a Processed Foods World®, we’ll walk you step-by-step on how to get the most out of your peas and how to prepare them.