2004 is Year of the Pea, so get growing

Peas are the first vegetables I remember eating fresh from the garden. When I was very young, we moved to a home with a spot for a garden where we planted peas.

I still remember the large boxes of seed bearing the Porter-Walton name and bright-colored pictures. We soaked the seeds overnight and planted the long rows the next morning. Then we waited for Mother Nature to provide the sunshine and the other ingredients needed to make those seeds grow.

It was well-worth the wait.

Peas straight from the garden are a wonderful treat for those of all ages. All you need to do is pick, shell and eat. As a child, I grazed until I was full.

The National Garden Bureau has designated 2004 as the "Year of the Pea." Fortunately, gardeners across the state can easily grow these tasty vegetables.

Peas are cool-season vegetables and do best when planted in the early spring. Try to get them in the ground as soon as you can work the soil. For naysayers who think you missed the planting time, most cool season vegetables can go in the ground until the middle of May.

Peas are some of the oldest known vegetables. Archaeologists have found them in ancient tombs at Troy and at Thebes, but no one knows when they were first cultivated. Records indicate that by the Bronze Age (3000 B.C.), some variety of peas was part of the diet.

According to legend, the Chinese Emperor Shen Nung discovered peas nearly 5000 years ago. By the Middle Ages, peas were stored and dried for food.

Dried peas keep indefinitely, so they accompanied English colonists to America and were one of the first crops they planted.

The garden pea as we know it was developed in England — thus the name "English pea." Little is known about early breeding, but it probably came through selection and through deliberate crossing, even though peas do not lend themselves easily to crossing.

The three types of garden peas — English peas, snow peas and snap peas — are catagorized in the way you eat them. Botanically they all are varieties of Pisum sativum and belong to the legume family Leguminosae. Pisum is Latin for "pea" and sativum means "cultivated."

Snow peas, which have been grown in Asia for centuries, are popular for their flat, edible pods. Snap peas, such as the original "Sugar Snap," may be the result of a natural cross between snow peas and English peas.

All three types need the same growing conditions, but the way they are harvested and eaten differ.