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from the forum: eating pea shoots (not pods)

FORUM MEMBER ANN HAD a good question this week: Ever eaten pea tendrils or flowers or any of the bits other than the peas themselves? Well, yes I have, I replied, offering the best variety to grow for this gourmet salad ingredient or garnish, and I wonder what you think? Do tell. Or if you have nothing to report on that score, what about this: Have you lost seedlings you started to the (dreaded fungal disease called) damping off? Let us know (or just hear our horror stories). See you on the Urgent Garden Question Forum.

  1. Adrienne says:

    I’ve eaten pea shoots before, but the peas I’m growing this year do NOT have tasty looking shoots at all. I’m not sure if it’s overwatering or way too much sun (it’s been unseasonably warm in Boston for the last month) but the yellowing you can see at the base of the stalks in this picture is all the way to the top of the plant now. We were away for 5 days and apparently it was sunny and hot (my sister was watering my garden). I’ve moved them onto a shaded porch, but do you know what caused this? The pods are still growing, it seems, but I’m worried about them!

  2. Willi says:

    I think that sugar snap pea shoots taste the best. I’m not a fan of varieties that have the afila gene (the ones with really curly tendrils), because they have an unfortunate stringy texture.

  3. ann says:

    WHAT, another Ann here?
    Pea shoots are not my thing and have loved Lincoln
    are as we call them around these parts, Big Dakota
    peas for years, no longer plant them when my family grows
    acres of field peas. We pick bushels of them when they are
    young and serve in cream with new potatoes and baby carrots.
    Grow mung bean sprouts in a week and seems easier than pea shoots.
    But love that book EATS, SHOOTS, AND LEAVES.

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