Every year I grow 15-20 different garden pea (Lathyrus oleraceus / Pisum sativum) varieties and they’ve now all been dried, I’ve taken seed of those I want to continue with or share with members of KVANN (Norwegian Seed Savers) and the remainder will become delicious multivariety pea soup in winter:
It turns out that I altogether have exactly 50 varieties in my seed vault (i.e, the cellar), some of which are only grown every 3rd year. Some are modern varieties, others Norwegian, Swedish, Danish and Finnish and UK heirlooms. Today I was sorting the packets and peas in old packets (more than 4 years old) were added to the soup mix! I recycle seed packets, so not many of these packets were originally for peas!
Tag Archives: Scandinavian Heirlooms
Pea harvest 2023
The garden pea / ert (now Lathyrus oleraceus, was Pisum sativum) is an important source of vegetable protein and can be grown over most of Norway with many heirloom varieties which have been rescued and are maintained across Scandinavia by seed saver organisations such as our own KVANN (Norwegian Seed Savers; kvann.no).
Over the years, I’ve grown over 90 different varieties and usually some 20 varieties every year, a mix of Scandinavian and UK heirlooms and modern varieities. There are some favourite varieties such as Golden Sweet, Purple Podded, Salmon Flowered, Sugar Snap and Hurst Green Shaft which I grow each year, whilst others are grown less frequently on a roughly 3 year rotation, so that I am maintaining some 40-50 varieties at any one time! I share a few with members of KVANN each year.
The pea harvest and processing for 2023 was completed yesterday: dried first on window sills, then sorted, saving the best peas for seed for the next grow-out and for sharing. I use the remainder mainly for pea soup, pea fritters/felafel and for sprouting for pea shoots. Here’s this year’s pea diversity shown in the pictures:
Outer ring: Rättviksärt, Mammoth Melting, Big Jumps / Karina, Sugar Magnolia, PI203064 Finsk (gift, rematriated from Seed Savers Exchange), Jærert, Lollandske Rosiner, Herald/Herault, (Middle): Alma, Salmon Flowered, Purple Podded, Golden Sweet, Slikkert fra Våler, Store Holgers Kämpeart, Sugar Snap and Magnum Bonum (Not shown: Brunært fra Nakskov and Svartbjörsbyn).