Dwarf Pea Douce Provence with round grain - Vilmorin seeds

Douce Provence is a dwarf Pea variety derived from the Petit Provençal variety. It has beautiful pods containing 7 to 9 round and smooth peas, rather light green in colour. Its reputation for flavour is well established: sweet, tender, and melting, it lends itself to all culinary variations.
This early variety offers gardeners an excellent yield. If you live in a region with mild winters, you can sow Douce Provence as early as October or November. In other cases, sow from February to April for harvests from April to July.

The Pea is an annual vegetable plant belonging to the Fabaceae family (formerly Leguminosae) with ancient origins in the Near East. It is one of the oldest cultivated vegetables in Europe and Asia. It was long consumed dry and crushed before cooking, and its consumption fresh is rather recent.

There are many varieties of Peas: dwarf or climbing (pole) varieties producing pods filled with smooth or wrinkled round grains. They are cooked after being shelled because the parchment-like pod in which they are enclosed is not edible. Only snow peas (with flat, crunchy, and buttery pods) are consumed in their entirety.

In general, climbing Peas are more productive but less early and require a structure 1.5 to 2 metres (5 to 7 feet) tall for them to climb. Harvesting is easy. Dwarf or semi-dwarf Peas only require a few branches or canes (from 50cm (20in) to 1 metre (3 feet)) as supports. Some recent varieties, with their foliage mostly replaced by tendrils, support themselves, and the installation of supports is then optional.

Smooth-grained Peas are resistant to spring cold. They are very early or early varieties that can be sown early in the year under cover, but they do not appreciate excessive heat.

For late spring and early summer sowings, wrinkled-grained varieties with a sweeter flavour are used. They tolerate heat and offer longer harvests.

Peas are highly appreciated in spring, but with careful selection of varieties, they can be harvested over a long period from June to September.

In cooking, Peas can be consumed raw, but they are traditionally cooked to accompany meat and fish or for the preparation of delicious soups. They are a fairly calorie-dense vegetable as they are rich in carbohydrates, and contain a lot of fiber, iron, and vitamins C and B9.

Peas like mild and humid climates but are wary of extreme weather conditions such as excessive heat, frost, and both water shortages and excesses, which weaken them and make them susceptible to powdery mildew and the Pea moth, a small caterpillar that eats the seeds.

Harvest: Depending on the variety, Peas are harvested between two and a half and four months after sowing. Harvesting should be regular and take place when the pods feel full when pressed with a finger. Don't wait too long... Peas tend to harden as they age!

Storage: Fresh Peas are stored, unshelled, in the vegetable drawer of the refrigerator. They freeze very well once blanched in boiling water.

Gardener's tip: Peas, like all Fabaceae, have the ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen in the soil, acting as a green manure. This nitrogen supply benefits both plants that are nearby and those that will be planted subsequently in a crop rotation system.