All About Peas

Peas are the edible seeds that come from the plant Pisum Sativum. There are basically two broad groups of peas: those which have an edible pod and those which have a hardened one. The most popular variety of pea is the green, or garden variety. Also called “English peas,” this plant produces bulbous peas with a sweet taste. 

Peas may have come originally from the Middle East, but there is evidence suggesting Asia is another potential place of origin. It’s likely that the wild pea, which is highly seasonal, was a menu item for early hunter gather societies that gradually became a part of domestic life. We estimate domestication of the pea occurred close to 8,000 years ago. 

Once domestication was started, the pea spread quickly throughout India and China. The Egyptians, like the Greeks and Romans, considered the pea to be a valuable crop.

By the sixteenth century, we’d perfected the art of growing peas and created a variety that could be eaten fresh from the vine. The French embraced peas with fervor, and they found their way to the New World with the earliest settlers to land there. 

At some point, we also lost an “e” in the word peas. In Old English, we called them pise from the Latin word “pisa.” In Greek, we say “pison,” which suggests that peas have been a staple for a large part of human history. It was not until the rise of the “tinned pea” where we see “pease” become “peas.”