FreshPoint

Description:

English Pea, garden pea, green pea. Whatever you like to call them, there is evidence that they were cultivated as long ago as 5,700 B.C. They are descended from the wild form, which is indigenous to the Eastern Mediterranean and to the Middle East. Only about 5 percent of the Pea Crop reaches the fresh market the vast proportion of the remainder finds it way into the food processing industry for canning, drying and freezing in particular.


Commercially, peas are classified as wrinkled, round or smooth, and edible-pod peas. English Peas are round peas. Because of their high starch content, they taste slightly starchier and a little less sweet than Sugar Snap Peas. Good partners for Peas include butter, dark sesame and roasted peanut oils, dill, chives, chervil, parsley, basil, mint, ginger, garlic, shallots, onions, asparagus, turnips, fava beans and scallions. English Peas can be steamed, boiled, stir-fried, made into soups, and blanched and tossed into salads and pastas.