Pea Telephone with wrinkled grains - Vilmorin seeds

Pea Telephone is a climbing variety of shelling pea with long pods containing 8 to 10 light green wrinkled grains and a surprisingly sweet taste. It is a climbing variety, so be sure to provide support quickly as the plants can reach a height of 1.50 to 2 m (5 to 7ft).
Harvest from June to August and with its wrinkled grains, you can make delicious vegetable pickles. The Telephone variety is resistant to pea diseases; it offers excellent yields and, unusually, is particularly heat-resistant. Sow from March to July.

The Pea is an annual vegetable plant belonging to the Fabaceae family (formerly Leguminosae) that has a very ancient origin in the Middle East.  It is one of the oldest cultivated vegetables in Europe and Asia. It was long consumed dried, crushed before cooking, and its fresh consumption is relatively recent.

There are many varieties of peas: dwarf or climbing (with tendrils) that produce 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 sugar snap peas (with flat, crunchy, and buttery pods) are consumed in their entirety.

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

Smooth-grained peas are resistant to spring frosts. They are very early or early varieties that can be sown very early under a Nantes tunnel, for example, but they do not tolerate excessive heat well.

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

Peas are highly appreciated as a spring vegetable, but, by carefully choosing 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 quite calorific as they are rich in carbohydrates, contain a lot of fiber, iron, and vitamins C and B9.

Peas like mild and humid climates but are sensitive to extreme weather conditions such as high heat, frost, and both water excess and shortage, 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 done 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 can be 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 nearby plants and those that will be planted subsequently in a crop rotation logic.