Episode 30: Divine Punishment & the Legume Shooting Lady of London- Peas
Hello and welcome back to another episode of rooted! This week we are digging deep into a plant I've been warning you all about for ages- PEAS. I am so excited about this episode because we have so much to talk about! Without further ado- let's get digging.
Peas are the most famous members of the fabaceae or legume family, with famed family members like gorse, clover, and mimosa that we’ve already discussed, and all kinds of other plants we have yet to get into!
Now, while you might think there are a million different plants we call peas, there are actually really only two species we interact with -Pisum sativum - the ones we eat, and Lathyrus odoratus- sweet peas, which you should never eat. we have just hybridized the heck out of these guys, which is why we have so many pea varieties… more on that later!
Both of these guys are native to the mediterranean basin, preferring the cool season where they can really let those tendrils down and wiggle in that refreshing sea breeze in all their glory. They really aren’t too picky about soil, as like most of their famous family- these guys can pretty much make any space their own by adding plenty of nitrogen back in and helping the plants around them to feel more welcome.
There are ultimately 3 kinds of pea- field peas , garden peas, and edible pod peas! The earliest peas we know of were field peas, and they are basically just a precursor to the sweeter, more tender garden peas, followed by the newest variety of pea- edible pod peas, with the most popular variety- the sugar snap pea- not being introduced until 1979!
But, in order to understand how we got there, we’ll have to start by taking a quick walk through history. Don your best hangerock and raise your ale horn, because we are going all the way back to ancient scandinavia.
In Norse mythology, it is said that Peas were actually sent down as a punishment from Thor, who had grown tired of the plebeians who didn’t follow him just godly existence with their wells and crops and perfectly fine lives, decided he needed to take matters into his own hands. So, one day he had a genius idea- fill up their wells with something so small and so annoying to fish out that they would be cursed with dirty wells forever. He called in a few favors with his dragon pals, and set them off with as many peas as they could carry- instructing them to fill the wells of anyone who didn’t worship him. This…. Didn’t have the desired effect. In fact, people LOVED the peas, which easily sprouted in their wells and produced seeds that tasted pretty good…so, they started planting whole fields, even believing it was a GIFT from thor. This only made him MORE angry, and so he unleashed an army of dwarves to destroy the pea fields… I guess you could say he was disPEASED with the outcome…
Anyway, the dwarves apparently couldn’t get to all the peas, because we have records dating back to the neolithic era that show people eating peas for at least the last 10,000 years. Although, the peas they ate back then were WAY different than the peas we eat now!
The peas they were working with way back then were the super old school field peas, which were super hard, dry starchy balls that people would roast and peel like chestnuts. They didn’t really taste like much based on the recipes that were left with them, but they were easy to grow and find, and provided a lot of important nutrients, so back then no one had any real complaints.
As time went on, humans did what we do best- we started comparing notes with our friends to find out which peas were the best in terms of flavor, production, size, etc and started mixing them all until we got something better than the sum of it’s parts, then rinsed and repeated about a million times.
Eventually people were OBSESSED with peas, with conversations about which peas were best, how to best grow them, and so on were hot topics- sort of like chocolate and coffee are today.
That takes us to garden peas, Starting with smooth garden peas in the early 16th century, which were sweeter and a bit softer than what we had before, but still a far cry from the peas of today. The next iteration of garden pea came to us in the late 17th century when famed botanist and one time president of the London Horticultural Society Thomas Andrew Knight developed what he called the Wrinkled pea- a pea that was much softer and sweeter than the hard bland crusties that came before.. These were so spectacular that EVERYONE wanted to plant them, and they dubbed them “knights Marrowfats” because they were so luscious…I’m telling you- people were OBSESSED with peas, okay.
Before we dive into more pea history, I just want to take a second to talk about our boy thomas, who apparently wanted to be a gardener from a young age because he saw a groundskeeper planting what he thought was a dry old stick (but was actually a bean stalk) and became fascinated by plants and how they work. At one point he apparently even planted a pocket knife hoping it would grow into a pocket knife tree, which has got to be one of the only cute things Victorian era children have ever done.
Quite a while after the wrinkled pea hit the scene gregor mendel came in with a new use for peas- genetics! In the mid 1800’s he started using peas to show how genes present themselves over generations- helping to answer Darwin's Question about how evolution would work. Mendel chose peas for his infamous experiment because they were easy to grow, have relatively short life cycles, and are self-pollinating, which made them easy to selectively breed. He took wrinkled and smooth peas, as well as tall and dwarf peas, yellow and green peas, and white and pink flowered peas, then mixed some of those together- all told breeding 29,000 pea plants- to show how recessive and dominant genes show up, thus creating the foundation of modern genetics!
Peas weren’t just useful in helping us understand genetics though! Peas have been used in food, soil management, and some…less conventional ways
Digging into the less conventional ways, we’ll have to jump back a bit to London’s industrial revolution.
Back in those days, people needed to be up early and ready to work, but they didn't have the convenience of an alarm clock. Enter the Knocker-uppers- a group of early risers for hire, who would come to wake you up! This was a super popular solution to the problem of waking up in the mornings, but as you might imagine, it wasn't without it’s struggles. The biggest problem knocker uppers had was that they had to be loud enough to wake their clients up, but not so loud that their neighbors would hear and get woken up for free. That’s where Mary Smith comes in- perhaps the best known knocker upper, Mary was a kind older woman known for her use of peas to wake up her customers. She would spit them out of a long tube and knock gently on her clients windows until they got up. Peas were perfect for this because they were loud enough against the window to get the customer’s attention, but much quieter than small stones or other objects would be! Before long, other knocker uppers began following suit, and Mary became quite famous around London for her genius solution- even going on to be mentioned in several children's stories and articles. I’ll include a photo of her on our instagram in case you’re curious!
Peas were also an interesting topic in Shakespeare's work, where we would occasionally call folks Peascods or Squashes, which at the time was calling them pea pods or UNRIPE pea pods if he really wanted to rub salt in the wound.
Aside from insulting people, peas have also played vital roles in our history as a food source and cover crop.
Pretty much every culture on every continent has at least one dish with peas, ranging from old school porrages, simple dishes with butter mint, or even as a stir fried addition (usually including the seed pods).
Peas are also an excellent source of both fiber and plant protein, which is one of the reasons we have started to see peas popping up in vegan substitutes like ice cream, burger patties, and more! It’s also a popular substitute in gluten free products due to the texture pea flower can lend to things without all the pesky gluten.
While most people can eat peas no problem, it turns out that some people are actually allergic to peas! Interestingly, this tends to impact folks whose ancestors are from thievery region peas originated from- the mediterranean basin! This allergy is caused by a genetic deficiency of the enzyme glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase, which results in the body being unable to process peas appropriately.
Even though not everyone can enjoy the culinary aspects of peas, I think we can all appreciate the ways we have grown alongside them! From divine punishment to designer delicacy, peas have come a long way from those tough starchy balls sent to teach us a lesson. Next time you see a pea, I hope you’ll think a little bit more about all of the things they have taught us, and all we can still learn about leaving things better than we found them.
I have honestly barely scratched the surface of these guys, and am now a massive fan of peas, so we might have to do a bonus episode on them in the future- we’ll see! But for the sake of your brains and mine, that’s all I’ve got for this week, but I’ll be back at you soon with even more facts and fictions about the plants you know and love.
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