I like produce. I like to grow it. I like to eat it. I like to create recipes with it. I’m also kind of a nerd and like to get to know my produce. I like learning new or fun tidbits of info about the produce I’m growing/eating/baking. If you’re a weirdo like me then buckle up for this new series as I dive into a plethora of produce facts and share them with you. Here we go:
1. In 1984, Janet Harris broke a Guinness World Record by consuming 7175 peas in 60 minutes using chopsticks.
2. The green pea as we know it today is only green because it’s picked when it’s still immature. A ripe pea is yellowish. Eating peas when they are green became fashionable in the 1600s and 1700s but the French thought it was madness to eat them green.
3. Clarence Birdseye froze the first peas in the 1920s. Raise your hand if you’ve had a Birdseye veggie product! *raises hand* Also, freshly frozen peas are actually frozen within just two and a half-hours of being picked. Flash freezing locks in all the nutrients.
4. One serving of peas contains the equivalent Vitamin C as 2 large apples and a 100 calorie serving of peas contains more protein than a whole egg or tablespoon of peanut butter. Who knew?
5. A 3000 year old pea was found in Thailand. How they know it was that old I have no idea! I’ll research it and report back.
6. Pea leaves are considered a delicacy in China.
7. The value of edible pea crops in the United States is over $85 million with almost 400,000 acres planted.
8. The average pea weighs between 0.1 and 0.36 grams. They are tiny little buggers!
9. The less water you use when cooking peas, the less vitamin C is lost.
10. Peas were used in the early exploration of genetics. Basically Gregor Johann Mendel used peas to lay the foundation of the modern science of genetics!
Had you heard any of those fun facts before? Do you have any of your own to add? Is there a particular produce item you want to know more about? I take requests!
Grow on,
~ Mavis
Kristin says
I knew about Mendel and that frozen ones retain their nutrients but not the rest!
KC says
Most veggies you don’t *want* to wait to eat until full maturity – imagine those monster, watery, fibrous zucchinis! But yes, for the three varieties of peas I’ve let go to seed, all three turned yellow before they die.
(that said, split peas must come from somewhere? And they’re green and fully mature?)
ryvir says
I love pea leaves! Pea leaves and pea shoots are delicious when you stir fry them or just otherwise saute them a little.
Lana says
I figured out when I was a teenager that Dad always said he did not have room on his plate and would get some peas later but never did. I felt cheated.
In China they have green pea ice cream. My daughter says it is pretty good.
Gee says
9. House Rule: You only steam peas long enough to get them hot.
Years ago, I spent two hours picking half a grocery bag (the old paper ones) full of peas to take to a visit to the camp of an aunt. Her and I and her mother sat out on the porch chatting and podding them all afternoon. Then the aunt went to cook and I got the table ready. She called me over and asked if the peas were done. I went to peek in her saucepan and saw … a green swamp! The water was so green I literally could not see the peas. I told her that was probably good enough. This aunt, obviously, never had a garden.
Amy says
Hello Mavis,
Check out the book/audio book “Birdseye” by Mark Kurlansky. It is an amazingly interesting biography on Clarence and it was great to listen to. He was also instrumental in the research on ticks in order to help reduce the amount of people who caught Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. He was also a lifelong inventor.
And I will never grow my own peas again- 11 hours of labour (planting/weeding/harvesting/cleanup/shelling) for 7 cups of peas. Argh. They tasted great though! Ha ha!
Vicki B. says
Peas are one of those “crops” we plant to snack on while we’re doing other things outside. They never even make it into the kitchen, so I guess we get the most vitamin C out of them. And by crop I mean that I plant a tub or two full of them since I only container garden. My mother use to heat canned peas until they were more mush than they were when the can was opened. I swear that woman could ruin any vegetable she touched – fresh, canned or frozen. I hated most vegetables until I was grown and living on my own, cooking my way for my own family. She and I never saw eye to eye on anything, but especially how long vegetables should be cooked.
Lace Faerie says
The first time I went to dinner at my boyfriend’s (now HH) house, his mother asked if I liked peas. I told her, oh yest! There are my favorite veggie! I didn’t even know they sold canned peas! My Mama was a fresh or fresh frozen veggie lover. My dear (soon to be) MIL opened a can of peas then proceeded to boil them for 10 minutes! The horror! They were little grey balls of sawdust! Of course, I had to gag down a good size serving, and gag I almost did!! God, I love that woman, but she can suck the moisture out of darn near everything she cooks. I cannot convince her that you do not have to bake a precooked ham for 4 hours! Or reheat fresh deli fried chicken in the oven for 2 hours. Even if on low, even if a piece of foil is tented over it! That’s why God invented microwaves!
Michelle says
Peas are my favorite…especially right off the bush!
Beverly says
We love peas at our house. When my husband was growing up, they called peas Sunday bullets because they always had them on Sunday and they were so hard to chase down on the plate. Never knew who would get a pea in the eye! I love eating them off the vine in the garden. Thanks for all the pea info.
Laura says
Speaking of peas, pea leaves, and/or pea shoots, I’m wondering why I can’t buy alfalfa sprouts anywhere these days? Just when I began liking them, they’re no where to be found. Perhaps you can give me some info on afalfa sprouts one of these days, Mavis?