For me, 90 pea plants is a lot. A ton. With a 400 square foot garden, 90 pea plants means… well it means that I’ve got a lot of peas packed in there.
This year I planted three varities:
- Cascadia. A very reliable, crisp snap pea. This variety follows what is emerging as the Compostings Law of Favored Vegetables – it produces a lot. This variety represents about half of the pea plant population in my proximity.
- Carouby de Maussane. A beautiful pea plant with gorgeous flowers. It’s a snow pea and has been Mr. and Mrs. Reliable for me. But this year.. hmmm… something has struck the de Maussane and withered them. The plants look sickly and there are very few peas. The peas that are growing are gnarly. I’m going to do a bit of research to figure out what hit them to determine if I can plant these guys again next year or if I should wait.
- Mr. Big. In addition to being a horrific 80’s/90’s band, Mr. Big is a fairly popular shelling pea. The peas are incredibly delicious. But, shelling peas tend to violate Compostings Law of Favored Vegetables in that, while they produce a lot, you need TONS to make even a bag or two of frozen peas. (Jim Gaffigan has a comedy routine about blueberry picking. Work, work, work, and by the time you are done you’ve got enough to make a muffin.)
The peas, especially the Cascadia, are in full effect. The whole family, including Sean our two year old, loves them. Oh yeah, Sean loves the broccoli too.
Next year I will lose the shelling peas, heal the Carouby peas, and devote even more space to Cascadia.
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I’m loving Cascadia this year too. My Super Sugar Snaps are doing a touch better in production but they just don’t taste quite as good. I think next year I’m going to lose the snow peas and just grow snap peas. They just produce so much more.
My hubby…who grew up with a big communal garden, gets an eye twitch when someone mentions “shelling peas.” He would cheer your philosophy of sticking to the lower labor intensive veges!
I agree that the sugar snap peas really give you more for the space they need. Also, I just love the fact that my five year old eats more of them off the vine that at the dinner table.
So true Wendy. I’m not sure who eats more of the peas before they make it into the house.. me or my 2 year old.
I didn’t realize they named a pea variety after my college nickname
But I digress…I did snow peas and they are doing ok, not great. I want to do the snap peas too next year.