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I hadn't realised they had fallen away from availability. I've been keeping Mayan Gold and either Mayan Rose or Mayan Twilight going for quite a few years (one faded away last year but I can't remember which one without checking. I think perhaps MR)

Mayan Gold does very well each year; the other two seem less vigorous. If you'd like a couple of withered starters now, or a more generous number at the end of the season, I'm very happy to send.

It's been some years now since I've seen seed potatoes of the Phureja cultivars on the market. I'm talking about Mayan Gold, Mayan Rose, etc. those really lovely yellow-fleshed, floury maincrop potatoes that made killer roasties. Miss them :(
Anyone know what happened, and if they'll be coming back?

Quote from: galina on March 15, 2025, 07:57:02The grouping of soup pea, as opposed to shelling pea may be less useful than a separate group of the white flowered, marrowfat, shelling type pea, which are the sweeter peas, separate from the field pea types.  Marrowfat, aka sweet English peas, are used as fresh shelling peas and as drying peas (reconstituted as mushy peas with fish and chips).  I am talking about varieties like Hurst Green Shaft, Kelvedon Wonder or Telephone when I am talking about marrowfat or English peas.
 
Soup peas, like the Latvian Soup pea, are fine as freshly shelled peas, mature earlier and are welcome freshly shelled because of that, but they do not have the same sweetness that the traditional 'Captain's' pea varieties have.  Soup peas maybe a term in use, because their smaller seed size means they reconstitute faster than the larger seeded peas or just because they were traditionally used that way.   

So, within shelling peas (because none have an edible pod unless picked very young), it is just the different level of inherent sweetness.  With the mutation to white flowers centuries ago, came a level of sweetness, that the older types of field peas often called grey peas (because of their often mottled seed colour) do not have.  I think this is the real difference, not so much their use.  You can eat all drying and soup peas freshly shelled too and you can equally dry all 'fresh eating' peas for mushy pea type dishes.   

 

That's really interesting. I had always taken 'marrowfat' to denote a pastier kind of pea than the sweet shelling pea. Some sources suggest that the term is used for larger peas which are traditionally left to dry rather than eaten fresh though as you say, Galina, they can certainly be eaten fresh. I'm wondering where bean peas, such as Mr Bound's bean pea and Bullroyd bean pea fit in.

I also hadn't thought of soup peas as necessarily small but, thinking about it now, the peas which carry that name do tend to be small. In my mind, I guess I was thinking of all non-sweet peas as good for drying and therefore for soup, stews etc..

The categorisation certainly is confusing but your clarification, once I've rethought some of my labelling, is very helpful. It leaves me thinking that I must develop a taste for non-sweet fresh podded peas. I'll join the taste testing!

Juliev, yes, the problem is (just like with beans), that there are too many different names around, describing the same or different things, and it gets very confusing, very fast. Indeed, enjoy them all and happy growing and taste testing. 

Thank you Galina for taking the time to give further details. I have to admit my ignorance when it comes to pea groupings (and many more crops, I'm sure!). Beyond the petit pois, everything has been a new culinary experience... Now I'll know what I'm eating when I have mushy peas!

Add serious taste testing to the list of summer jobs...

The grouping of soup pea, as opposed to shelling pea may be less useful than a separate group of the white flowered, marrowfat, shelling type pea, which are the sweeter peas, separate from the field pea types.  Marrowfat, aka sweet English peas, are used as fresh shelling peas and as drying peas (reconstituted as mushy peas with fish and chips).  I am talking about varieties like Hurst Green Shaft, Kelvedon Wonder or Telephone when I am talking about marrowfat or English peas.
 
Soup peas, like the Latvian Soup pea, are fine as freshly shelled peas, mature earlier and are welcome freshly shelled because of that, but they do not have the same sweetness that the traditional 'Captain's' pea varieties have.  Soup peas maybe a term in use, because their smaller seed size means they reconstitute faster than the larger seeded peas or just because they were traditionally used that way.   

So, within shelling peas (because none have an edible pod unless picked very young), it is just the different level of inherent sweetness.  With the mutation to white flowers centuries ago, came a level of sweetness, that the older types of field peas often called grey peas (because of their often mottled seed colour) do not have.  I think this is the real difference, not so much their use.  You can eat all drying and soup peas freshly shelled too and you can equally dry all 'fresh eating' peas for mushy pea type dishes.   

 

No, Opal Creek is a real snap pea.  However, it does have the narrowing of the pod, the reduced pod width, that (most of the time), comes with the colour yellow.  Which is why I was so lucky to get a wide yellow mangetout with Court Estate Gold.  As it was my first ever breeding effort, I didn't even appreciate how lucky that was.  More recently bred yellow snaps here have longer length than Opal Creek, but not the width of say Magnolia Blossom, despite being bred from Court Estate Gold as the yellow parent.     

Thank you all, peas ready to go! (Looks like I've got some pea breeding on the horizon...)

Jan, I've just tried it and the airtable is working for me. Thank you!

Quote from: juliev on March 13, 2025, 07:51:45I'm about to sow my peas. They are a few varieties that I am not sure I have categorised correctly. (and I trust you more than seed catalogues  )

Sankia (seed circle, shared 2024) shelling pea?
Crown Pea Salmon flowered and Rosa Krone. I grew Rosa Krone last year as a shelling pea, but I'd be tempted to grow it as a dry/soup pea.

Opal Creek, yellow sugar snap? It didn't look/have the texture of the other sugar snaps I grew last year
Shiraz, purple mangetout. We've tried several time, we find it awful...
Blawschoker, purple mangetout. In the catalogue description, it's often said "if eaten very young"...

This is a good moment to remind you of the Airtable base where these should be categorised. I shall also add any extra observations from Vetivert's reply.

I had some problems with the base as I inadvertently started to gather a lot of charges. With some good advice from my son, I found a way round that and moved it around. It is now fully available again but I think the ability to sort, filter, group etc might have got lost for a few people for a while. I shall make sure this morning that those facilities are available again.

So, on the base, I have Sankia as a soup pea.

Blauwschokker is on the base too and described much as Vetivert confirmed above. It was contributed by Silverleaf in 2021.

I don't know whether anyone also has had trouble with germinating Salmon-flowered Crown pea. It didn't germinate for me. I'm not sure what went wrong. ☹️

Thank you Vetivert, makes perfect sense.  Guess a pot is the best way and start when the weather is warming up.  Guess patience is definitely required here.  Lovely fat looking seeds.  Looking forward to growing tree peony.