The optimal time to seed peas here in Vermont is in April as soon as the ground can be worked. You don’t want to start too early or the seeds may rot if the soil is too wet. And you don’t want to wait too long or the pea plants will suffer in the heat later in the season and produce a smaller crop.

Following is a selection of open-pollinated pea seeds you can find in our retail store. All parts of these peas are edible - flowers, pods and shoots. All of them can be grown as micro-greens as well.

In our climate we recommend providing support for pea plants of all sizes. Four posts with a line of string surrounding a pea patch is sufficient to prevent shorter varieties from flopping over in the wind and rain. Anything taller than 4’ will benefit from a trellis. Chicken wire, cattle fence, hardware cloth or Hortonova netting attached to t-posts or wooden stakes are all great options.

Our selection for the 2025 season:

SNAP PEAS - ideal for fresh eating, they’re crisp and sweet

Sweet Gem (High Mowing) - around 4’ tall, sweet and crisp with strong powdery mildew resistance.

Sugar Magnolia (Hudson Valley) - 5’ tall with gorgeous purple flowers and pods.

Amish Snap (Seed Savers Exchange) - 5-6’ tall, sweet and crisp pods on prolific vines.

SNOW PEAS - harvest when they’re small for a stronger pea flavor or let them grow slightly puffy for sweet and crisp pods

Blizzard (High Mowing) - 3’ tall, prefers being trellised. Sweet and easy to pick.

Swiss Giant (Hudson Valley) - 5’ tall. beautiful bi-color flowers (they’re edible too). high yield of large 3-4” pods.

SHELL PEAS - these involve more work with shelling, but the tender sweet peas are so worth it

PLS 595 (High Mowing) - short, 3-5’ tall plants with high yield. Very long pods with an average of 11 peas per pod.

Champion of England (Seed Savers Exchange) - grows up to 10’ tall! A historic variety from the 1840s. Prolific and sweet, with 8-10 peas per pod.

This blog post was written by Kat Consler and Julie Rubaud