By Will Bonsall
When most folks think of growing peas in the garden, they’re assuming fresh peas like shell, snow, or snap peas. Rightly so, I suppose, since those are expensive to buy and require less space. However, few people grow dry peas, also known as field or soup peas, even though they can add a lot more protein and carbohydrate to the diet. There are several types of dry peas, the best known being green and yellow soup peas, used whole or split. Whole round peas are especially good baked, exactly like baked beans — that is, with molasses, oil, and ground mustard (ground mustard goes well with any legume and allegedly reduces flatulence). By the way, dry peas, like dry beans, will cook much quicker if soaked the night before cooking (and even faster if frozen then thawed before cooking).
There are other types of dry peas less well known in the United States. For example, Blue Peas (which are a true pea, Pisum sativum, and should not be confused with Clitoria ternatea) are widely grown in Central and Northern Europe, especially in Austria, Germany, and Scandinavia. Typically grown for fodder or green manure, they are also fine as a soup pea. They are smooth and round and have a purple pod and skin — hence the name. The color comes from tannin and gives a robust flavor, which some, including this writer, thoroughly enjoy (think black beans).
That brings us to Capucijners (Kapucijners), or Dutch peas, which are either purple or buff with purple speckles. They are very large and flattened with dimples, which become darker with age. One strain, called Raisin Capucijner, is very well named.
Capucijners require a long, slow cooking time, even when soaked, but they yield a rich brown gravy. Their robust taste and texture combine well with carrots, potatoes, and rutabagas. The Capucijner pea has an interesting history: bred in the Low Countries of Holland, France, and Belgium, they were especially grown in the Capuchin monasteries from which cappuccino coffee also takes its name.
All these pea types can be prepared in much the same way: whole or split in soups and stews, baked, or mashed (though Capucijners don’t split well). Another use for all peas (including table types but, again, not Capucijners) is in curries. I often use split yellow peas as a substitute for red lentils, which don’t grow well in Maine.
As for growing these types of peas, there is overlap yet some distinction. For example, most peas require or at least prefer some kind of support, like hex wire. In my 72-inch-wide intensive beds (that’s including paths, the actual planting surface is 48 inches), I plant dry peas in furrows 24 inches apart with seed 1-2 inches apart. For Capucijners, I use stout vertical support, at least 4-feet high for the heavier vines.
The vines grown without any support will sprawl, and some pods may shatter and mold. To avoid that, when the vines are 8-10 inches tall (long, in this case), I hill them very lightly with a hoe so that the two side rows are leaning against the middle row, thus supporting each other. When the pods are nearly, but not quite, mature, I pull them all and pile them on a pole rack to completely cure. This reduces the shattering of over-dry pods.
Then I spread them on a tarp and thresh them like dry beans. If there is a lot of soil-covered roots, I sift out the soil through a screen. Sometimes I clip the vines instead of pulling them, which helps me avoid this issue altogether. Incidentally I’ve occasionally used a bit of loose hay to hill up the vines together. When growing peas with support, I sometimes hand-pick the pods rather than tearing off the vines to avoid shattering, though it’s much slower.
As with all peas, dry peas are very cold-hardy and can and should be planted as early as possible. I find that pea crops ripening in hotter, drier weather are susceptible to aphids and powdery mildew. One pea pest — the pea maggot — often goes unnoticed because we usually harvest fresh peas for food before the maggot matures. When peas are allowed to ripen for seed or dry use, the maggot has time to mature and will build up over time to become a serious crop menace. I find the best way to control them is through deep freezing. I store my dry peas in moisture-proof packages like glass jars or plastic packets in an exposed outbuilding: where I live, we often experience prolonged periods in the negative lower teens. That seems to destroy any pests without harming the seed itself.
While peas — all types — companion very well with root crops like carrots, rutabagas, and onions, it only works when you have a single row of trellised peas down the middle of the bed, and I often need a much higher proportion of peas to the other crops.
Since peas — and most of their companions — are happiest in near-neutral soils (as opposed to acid lovers like potatoes), I spread wood ash moderately (1 gallon per 100 square foot) on the plot’s surface. The abundant potassium and calcium are especially appreciated by those crops. High humus content is preferable to high nitrogen — after all, fixing nitrogen is what legumes do.
Although, I often use whole dry peas, especially Capucijners, in hardy soups and stews, I use most of them as split peas. For this, I use my Corona hand grain mill. I adjust the space between the grinder plates so it barely cracks the round seed, causing it to come out as two halves and a crushed seedcoat, which is easily winnowed away. For small batches this is as easy as pouring the peas from one bowl into another on a breezy day, or using a floor fan.
As far as where to obtain pea seed, you can usually find green dry whole field peas at any grocery or whole foods store, provided they’ve not been heat dried, which I’ve never found to be an issue. As for Capucijners, there are a few specialty seed companies that carry them, including Truelove Seeds, True Leaf, Carrick Seeds, and Roughwood Center for Heritage Seedways. By the way, some sources claim that Capucijners also make good green shell/table peas. Not in my opinion.
Lastly, if saving your own seed for replanting, be aware that peas are self-pollinating and do not have to be isolated, except for keeping them from laying over and physically mixing.
Will Bonsall lives in Industry, Maine, where he directs Scatterseed Project, a seed-saving enterprise. He is the author of “Will Bonsall’s Essential Guide to Radical Self-Reliant Gardening” (Chelsea Green, 2015).
This article originally appeared in the spring 2025 issue of The Maine Organic Farmer & Gardener.
