It wasLia Babitch of Turtle Tree Seed, a biodynamic supplier situated in the next town to where I live, who recommended the snowpea called ‘Schweizer Riesen,’ which translates as Swiss Giant.
She told me that this Swiss heirloom was one of Turtle Tree’s original offerings, and produces lots of paler but sweeter-than-average pods (below, in the photo next to an open pod of ‘Mayfair’), with various other tasty parts: purple blossoms, tender foliage and tendrils—something delicious and distinctive to add to your salad even before you have a single pod to pick. What a generous plant! (5-to-6 foot vines; 70 days to maturity, but enjoy trimmings much earlier.)When I went to place my order for those seeds at Turtle Tree, I saw a listing on the same catalog page for ‘Mayfair,’ and it rang a bell.
Just a couple of weeks before, founder C.R. Lawn of Fedco Seeds in Maine had told me that although ‘Lincoln’ was the sweetest shelling pea, he also favored‘Mayfair’(split open in the photo above)—one I’d never grown.
Hearing the name twice piqued my curiosity, and now I’m just starting to enjoy very sweet and apparently abundant peas for shelling, each pods stuffed with about seven to ten peas. “Nothing is more productive than ‘Mayfair,’” Lawn had
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