Pisum sativum.
The classic shelling pea — the one picked at full maturity and shelled to eat only the little round seeds inside, leaving behind the pod once it has become too firm and fibrous. It is the most ancient and traditional form of the cultivated pea: Pisum sativum is one of the very first plants domesticated by humanity, about 10,000 years ago in the Fertile Crescent (the present-day Near East), alongside wheat, barley, lentils and chickpeas — one of the "founder crops" of Neolithic agriculture. For millennia, the pea was cultivated mainly for drying — the famous Québec soupe aux pois, like English split pea soup or medieval pease porridge, bears witness to that long tradition of the pea as a winter staple. The consumption of the fresh pea in its round seed — the French petit pois — is actually a more recent fashion, popularized at the court of Louis XIV in the 17th century after the import of particularly delicate Italian cultivars that drove the court ladies so wild that Madame de Maintenon wrote about it in her letters as a "fureur" of the moment. The Green Arrow variety, selected in England in the 1970s, represents the modern culmination of that quest for sweetness and productivity.
A compact, semi-bushy plant 60-75 cm tall, needing only minimal trellising (a simple row of brushwood or a small low net is enough). Remarkable particularity: the pods are produced in pairs, side-by-side on the stem — doubling the harvest per node and considerably speeding up picking. Long, pointed bright-green pods 10-12 cm holding 9-11 well-packed peas each. Classic fresh-pea flavour: mild, sweet, herbaceous, with an almost milky finish — incomparable to the canned pea, and markedly superior even to the store-bought frozen pea. Eaten freshly shelled, raw straight from the pod, added to fresh pasta with butter, ham and mint (the piselli alla Romana), in Venetian risi e bisi (creamy pea risotto), in salade niçoise, as a garnish on pan-fried salmon, or simply in the bowl of soupe aux pois from traditional Québécois cooking (made with dried yellow or green peas).
Excellent for freezing: blanch 2 minutes in boiling water, cool, freeze spread on a tray, then transfer to airtight bags.
Grower's tip: Like all peas, the Green Arrow hates heat and prefers the cool season. Classic Québec strategy: direct-sow as soon as the soil can be worked (late April to mid-May), for an early-July harvest before the deep heat, and a second sowing in mid-August for a fall harvest. Soak the seeds 8-12 hours in warm water before sowing. Inoculation with Rhizobium leguminosarum (the pea's symbiotic bacterium) often doubles production — those bacteria let the plant fix its own atmospheric nitrogen. Harvest the pods at the plump, well-filled stage, just before they begin to harden and lose their sugar; at full maturity, the peas turn floury and lose their sweetness. Picker's trick: gently squeeze the pod between thumb and index finger — if it "snaps" lightly, that's the ideal moment to harvest.
- Open-pollinated. Modern heritage variety. Largely self-pollinating, very few crosses to fear — an excellent candidate for amateur seed saving. Resistant to several pea diseases (powdery mildew, fusarium, mosaic).
- Height: 60-75 cm. Low trellis or light staking.
- Maturity: 65-70 days.
- Exposure: full sun; part shade tolerated.
- Well-drained, moderately rich, neutral soil. Don't over-fertilize with nitrogen. Space seeds 3-5 cm apart in the row.
- Direct-sow late April to mid-May for summer harvest, or mid-August for fall harvest. Soak the seeds 8-12 h before sowing. Rhizobium inoculation strongly recommended.
