F2 Pea Report

(I get all the news I need ...)

I have spent a happy hour munching and noting. All peas have been tasted raw (you mean you can COOK them?) and of the 32 plants I have 6 that are undoubted genuine mangetout (or snow) peas. By that I mean that often you are told that a pea can be eaten young as a mangetout but these of mine, even with a mature and very knobbly pod, have no fibre in the pod walls. Three of these mangetout are green podded, two are a mingly bi colour and have a sort of varicose vein look about them!

This is number 15. A couple of dodgy photos here because they were in the shade and I tried several times - I'm at the limit of my little camera's performance here!

This one is number 12. Interestingly (to me) these two are from the group of 4 planted together that started very dark, short and stocky but eventually reached a medium height. Number 13 and 14 are green mangetout. These and one other green mangetout came from the dark seeds.

But here's the one I shall write home about (only I live here so I don't need to). It is a tall, purple podded, genuine mangetout pea, it tastes sweet and it has a multi-branching habit so it crops heavily. The final test is to cook one but as I like to eat my mangetout as part of a salad, it's just for completeness really.

I have no illusions however. I shall save the seeds from all those that look and taste decent and I shall grow out this particular line next year. I know I have several years of selecting and roguing (ok, eating!) ahead of me to try to fix a line like this. But what an exciting morning I've had!

Thanks go to my staff (the chickens) for finishing up the spare peas. They didn't seem to mind that some of the failures were a bit mealy or had a bitter aftertaste.