We harvested our third variety of peas yesterday. This year we are growing three types: tall snows, sugar snaps, and tall shells. This time it was the tall shells, reaching up 6 feet on the garden’s tallest trellis.
These peas took about three months to grow that tall. They were among the first veggies planted in the garden on March 24th.
Why are peas sorta geeky? It’s because of roles they played over the years in important advances in science and technology. In the mid-1800’s, peas were central players in research done by Gregor Mendel, now regarded as the father of heredity science and modern genetics. In the 1920’s, they were early contributors to the work of Clarence Birdseye in developing the technology for the fast freezing of fresh foods, work done here in Massachusetts and still used widely today.
