Growing Your Own Peas at Home

I've never been a big fan of peas. My mother always prepared the canned variety and inevitably overcooked them. Now that I'm an adult and have had the pleasure of eating peas prepared properly, I'm happy to include them in my diet.

There are many varieties of peas to choose from when planning your garden. Snap peas produce more food per square foot than any other variety. Both the pod and the pea, equally sweet, can be eaten raw or cooked. Snow peas produce flat pods that are eaten whole and a favorite for stir fry. Shell, or English, peas produce hardy peas in a tough pod that you'd rather not eat. Soup peas grow into the hard, starchy peas that are generally dried for storage and used to make pea soup.

• Soak peas in water overnight before planting them to ensure a good start.
• Plant your peas a month before the final frost date. You can continue to sow them three weeks apart in cool climates but bear in mind they will not produce well in hot weather.
• Keep the soil around your peas cool and moist by mulching them when they are about a foot tall.
• Peas love to climb. Be sure to give them a trellis or cage for support while they grow.
• Prepare their bed by loosening soil ten inches deep and adding a bit of compost. Plant seeds two inches apart and one inch deep to avoid any need for thinning.

When peas are ripe and before they have lost their deep green color, pick them carefully. The optimal time to pick ripe peas is in the morning. Be sure to refrigerate your picked peas as soon as possible to stop the conversion of sugar to starch and keep peas crisp. If you have extra, blanch and freeze them. If you are growing soup peas, leave them on the vine to dry but beware of the local wildlife. Birds will be happy to relieve you of your crop.

Harvesting your own pea seeds is as easy as allowing a few good pods to dry to brown on the vine. Shell them, select the biggest seeds and then freeze them for three days to kill any possible insects inside. Seeds stored in a cool, dry place will keep for about three years. Don't get too carried away when saving seeds. You'll only need about four ounces to plant twenty feet of peas.