Pea
Pisum sativum
A cool-season vine. Shelling, snap, and snow types are cultivar groups of one species. Nitrogen-fixing. Heat ends the crop.
GROW → HARVEST → EAT → DRY → POWDER → CAPSULE → GUMMY — forms are not equivalent. Food first.
Identity
What it is
A cool-season vine. Shelling, snap, and snow types are cultivar groups of one species. Nitrogen-fixing. Heat ends the crop.
Edible portions
- seeds
- pods of snap/snow types
- shoots
Absence of a portion from this list means it is not treated as food here — not that every other part is toxic.
Growing
- Climate. Cool-season
- Light. Full sun
- Soil. Average, well-drained, not waterlogged
- Planting. Direct-sow as soon as soil can be worked. Trellis tall types.
- Harvest. Sugar snaps when pods plump; snow before seeds swell; shelling when pods fill.
Preparation and culinary uses
- Eat the day you pick for sweetness
- Dried soup peas are a storage form
Nutrition and compounds
- Vitamins (qualitative, well-known associations). vitamin K, vitamin C, folate — not milligram values.
- Minerals (qualitative). iron, protein — look up current USDA FoodData Central entries for numbers.
AAA interpretation Food first. These associations explain why a plant shows up in a nutrient conversation — they are not a supplement shopping list.
Next steps
Sources
- USDA PLANTS Database — taxonomy and range (verify current entries)
- USDA FoodData Central — nutrient profiles for foods (verify current entries; this page does not invent milligrams)
- State cooperative extension growing guides — verify for your region
Honest incompleteness is preferred to fabricated completeness. If a section is missing, no record for it is attached here — not a claim that the plant lacks that characteristic, and not that it was omitted as a secret.
Internal quality class A. Strong page: distinctive plant facts plus practical growing or kitchen use.