Shelling Pea, Carruthers’ Purple Podded (Organic)
Pisum sativum. Purple Pod Shelling.
4-6′ tall vines, pink and purple flowers. Not an edible-pod type pea but the purple pods contain sweet, tasty green peas for fresh shelling or freezing. One of the best purple-podded types we have grown. The purple pods are easy to find when picking. An heirloom grown by the Carruthers family in County Down, Northern Ireland, for almost 40 years. Given to The Seed Ambassadors Project by the Heritage Seed Library in England. Aka, Caruther’s Purple Pod.
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Direct sow 1” deep February through April in rows that are 12” apart. Thin seedlings to 3” spacing. Protecting early sowings from frost may help with early yields. Requires trellising; try T-posts and bailing twine.
Seed Saving
Collect seed from pods that are fully dry. Shell by hand or by dancing, winnow to clean. Test for dryness with a hammer – dry peas shatter. When seeds are very dry, freeze to kill weevils. Some cross-pollination may occur, but peas predominantly self-pollinate so no isolation is needed.
Shannon (verified owner) –
Where did you grow this variety? Oregon
Planted in zone 8b on March 1. Didn’t have many seedlings (maybe 25% of what was planted) – not certain if that’s the fault of the seeds, slugs, or some other critter digging in the bed and eating the seeds – probably a combination of these problems. Beautiful purple flowers and the dark purple pods were easy to see for harvesting. Started harvesting late-June through early July. Might have had a longer harvest had we not had a record-setting heat wave. Will try again for a fall harvest.
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