Pea shoots for salads and stirfries

[alan refail]

I haven't grown peas for quite a few years, but, ever open to new ideas, I am having a go at growing them in the polytunnel for pea shoots. I first came across them in Joy Larckom's Oriental Vegetables. She gives the usual advice of sowing in the spring and cropping in the summer.

I came across them again in Charles Dowding, Salad Leaves for all Seasons. He includes them in his chapter on Salad Leaves through the Winter. As I use the polytunnel for as many types of winter salad as will fit in, I am giving them a try. He suggests that a late autumn sowing is a good idea, so I sowed some Kelvedon Wonder in modules on 7 November, and they are now well through. The suggestions for cropping are:

“Pinch out about 3” of the main stem when plants are 10-12” high. For a while afterwards they will stop growing and then new shoots will appear from top and bottom of the existing and still-growing stem. Keep picking these increasingly plentiful shoots through late winter and spring, even with their flowers on – which also taste delicious. Shoots will crop into July if you keep picking them and a few peas are possible too from shoots that were missed.”

Has anyone else tried this?

[vivienz]

Hi Alan,
I haven't grown peas for shoots, but did eat them quite a number of times last year and they are delicious and expensive to buy. I shall probably give them a go next year, though.
Best wishes,
Vivien

[PLUMPUDDING]

Hi Alan,

I saw these mentioned in my Sarah Raven cookery book and just picked a few nice looking shoots off the mangetouts. These were very nice, but you had to make sure you only got the most tender or they were a bit chewy.

But growing them specifically for young shoots should be much better.

Peas are nice and hardy so they should do well in a greenhouse or polytunnel. I've got some spare seeds so I think I'll give them a try. It might be a bit late to sow them, but I'm sure they will get going whenever the weather improves. I'll just have to watch out for mice.

[alan refail]

Latest update

Most of the peas germinated and are now a couple of inches high and putting out tendrils; growing slowly but steadily and I look forward to a spurt of growth when the days lengthen and the weather gets warmer.

[Johnboy]

Hi Alan,
A very interesting experiment and I hope it works out well for you.
You can also do a similar thing with Broad Beans. When they are about 8" high take the tops out and they in turn will send up young shoots (plural)from the base. I have never done this myself but a close friend has done this for years. I always cut mine back to within 4" of the ground after cropping and always get a late crop from the resulting regeneration.
I suppose you could pick these regenerations rather than a crop of beans
later on.
However please keep us posted to how your experiment goes.
JB.

[alan refail]

Thanks, Johnboy. The other tip re beans sounds promising. I'll keep posting when there's more progress.

Alan

[yummyveggies]

hi all.. just noticed this post .. I grew peas in troughs / like window box boxes specifically for pea shoots last year. V successful - best ones were the sugar snaps they seemed to have juicier tips. you could do cut and come again about 3 times before they went stringy.
V useful early pea flavour salad - esp. as I didn't have a greenhouse then ...
I am going to do it again this year.
regards, yummyveggies

[John]

I'd never thought of trying this until this post came up. With a bit of searching around the two varieties really worth the effort seem to be the mangetout 'Oregon Sugar Pod' and the sugar snap 'Cascadia'. I'll be giving them a try in a cold frame this year - nice to try something new each year.

John

[alan refail]

Update on the experiment so far : failure. All seedlings wiped out by hard frost after new year. Memo to self: sow a round seeded variety for over-wintering in tunnel.

Sowed again today - hope for success.

[Johnboy]

Hi Alan,
What a bummer! I was hoping that your experiment was going to answer the question, posed elsewhere, about taking the tops out of Culinary Peas as you would Sweet Peas. Do they put on more top growth?
Perhaps with your new sowing you might be able to give a definitive answer yet. Lets hope!
JB.

[alan refail]

Johnboy

A bummer indeed, but it's entirely my own fault for sowing wrinkled-seeded peas and hoping for a mild winter

My repeat sowing will be mainly for sprouting shoots, so I think a bit of space in the polytunnel is worth using.

Await further developments.

Alan

[Tigger]

I grow a whole range of veg to eat as micro leaves - peas, beetroot, lettuces, sweetcorn, kohlrabi - basically anything! The interesting thing about them is you get a concentrated flavour as well as a pretty leaf.

[Johnboy]

Hi Tigger,
I grow Seakale Beet using two different systems. I grow plants for the seasonal pickings but I also grow in concentrated rows for picking when the leaves are only about 4" high. Pull, nip the root off and steam and to me they are wonderful and any entirely different taste to those grown on to mature plants. They are also very good as a salad leaf at this stage.
Really I suspect that it is the absence of any trace of oxalic acid at this stage that makes them so palatable.
JB.

[Tigger]

Sounds lovely. That's going on my shopping list for tomorrow.

[alan refail]

Latest update on pea shoots:
Kelvedon Wonder sown again in modules on 7 March and planted out in polytunnel.
Now about a foot high. Picked first shoots today to eat in salad with lettuce, basil and frisee. Lovely and tender and a taste somewhere between the taste of freshly shelled peas and the smell of peapods.
A Mayday treat! Which is more than I can say about the wet weather