Some people like peas because they're fun. They roll around on your plate like little green marbles.

Other people like peas for their fresh, sweet taste, the taste of a new Spring after a long Winter.

But there are people who seem to think that peas are boring. These people are probably misinformed. Because once you get to know peas and their history, they are anything but boring.

Maybe these people don't know the important roles peas have played in the history of science. Maybe they haven't thought of peas as the geeks, the nerds, the propeller heads of the vegetable world.

And who in Arlington would ever claim that geeks, nerds, or propeller heads could be boring?! That they can not be just fascinating people? Who would say that geeks, nerds, and propeller heads do not make great neighbors?

Once they've read what follows, these people will know "what's what" about peas.

 

Origins

Peas claim the longest history of any vegetable in Robbins Farm Garden. Along with lentils and garbanzo beans — neither of which is being grown in this garden — peas are one of agriculture's three founding vegetables.

They go back over 10,000 years to humankind's first-ever gardens, planted in the Near East, in what is now Syria, Jordan, and southeastern Turkey .