Peas are perfect in school gardens because:
1) They come in their own wrappers. In terms of food safety—-winners!
2) Peas are one of those foods whose “fresh” version and “canned” version are radically different. If you’ve only had those nasty little canned ones, fresh peas seem like a whole new food.
3) You can’t plant enough peas. My experience is that kids love to search for them on the vine, pop them open and eat. Every year I plant them I resolve to plant ten times more the following year.
4) As nitrogen-fixing legumes, you can chop up the plants after they’ve produced and dig them in to improve the soil.
5) Peas can be put in the ground early (Valentines Day here in Julian) so kids can plant and harvest during the school year. (Because some vegetables ripen in the summer, plants whose entire cycle can be observed during the traditional school calendar are great.)
As part of our “emerging” Farm to School program, I am working to choose a “crop of the month” for our school and align it as much as possible with a planting and harvesting schedule for the garden. We will also be incorporating the excellent matching resources of “Harvest of the Month” in garden lessons.
Naturally, our first crop will be peas for May.
To start, I bought every variety of pea I could find! Here are a few:
More pea-brained ideas to follow…..
What's not to like? 
Yay for peas!! I recognize some of those pea seed packages and have had good luck with a them. Happy pea farming!
Good to know you’ve had luck with these! Put in a bed of two varieties today—more to come, for continuous harvest. It was a little rough being out there today, with the wind whipping across the piles of snow. 🙂
How fun! I didn’t know that so many varieties of peas are available, just gathering seed packets locally! Looking forward to reading about future crops of the month!!
Tricky business, this “crop of the month.” I know September will be tomatoes and October apples. After that, I am still in deep negotiations with the weather and the Julian planting schedule….
T,
Can’t talk right now….Ma and Pa are going to the store to buy some peas…Fresh that is.dad
I hope you have better luck than I did yesterday. I stopped at Whole Foods, but the peas looked so sad….and I passed. Another reason to grow your own…
Reblogged this on and commented:
Peas anyone?
Thanks so much for the “reblog.” (Can that be a noun?) Sharing the garden love….