I’ve recently learned that certain peas are sold in bulk bags of 25 or even 50 pound bags to be planted as ground cover, forage or winter crops. Austrian Winter Peas are claimed to be hardy down to 0F. I have no experience with these. Has anyone grown them? Do they produce peas that are worth harvesting? It seems to me that such large seed quantities would lend themselves well to adaptive projects.
Neither do I but they look a lot like Nepal Field Peas. I’ve also read they can handle those cold temperatures too.
I don’t know, I think they may be boiled like you would eat phaseolus beans or Yellow dried Peas. I do know that the pods are too Fibrous to eat. The greens/pea shoots would probably worth harvesting.
Another species Pisum fulvum sometimes has seeds that require cracking or scaring to break seedcoat and allow water in. I don’t think Austrian Field peas are close to this.
Speaking of which Pisum species are actually closely related to Lathyrus species. So much so, that Pisum was moved to Lathyrus by some taxonomists. They share lots of edibility, it may be worth investigating potential crosses as Lathyrus has lots of edible characteristics.
I’ve grown some of these field type peas just for the shoots because they’re so affordable. I harvested them before they got tough, so maybe at 4-6"? I also ate some of the tender side shoots that grew out once the plant started maturing. They seemed similar to what I find sold as “pea tips” or “pea leaf” in Chinese markets.
Not sure if every field pea will behave this way, but I would definitely grow them again. Haven’t tried the peas themselves yet. Not sure how easy it is to cross these. I heard peas need a little encouragement to cross.
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Interesting, and I thought they were selling the shoots of regular garden peas. Didn’t know they used field peas for this purpose. But do field peas toughen quicker than Garden peas?
Interesting, I mean they are all the same species so there shouldn’t be any hybridization barriers right? Except for Pisum fulvum which is a different species that has been crossed with Pisum sativum but just a lil more difficult.
I’ve grown Austrian winter peas in the fall, ostensibly as a cover crop. Much of what I planted did not winterkill here in 6b and fruited the following spring.
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Awesome! It seems the more closer to wild you go in the fabeae tribe, the more adaptive the plant is to cold weather.
I grow Austrian Winter peas! They’re delightful. I live in zone 7b, and our lowest temperatures are usually around 7 degrees F, so I can’t report any cold hardiness lower than that, but I can definitely say they sail through that just fine.
They grow through the winter for me. Slowly, but actively. They don’t just go dormant, they put on a bit of new growth every month of the winter. I love that!
They’re usually the slowest peas to flower and the slowest to set pods, and their seeds are a lot smaller than most domesticated peas. They’re also not as sweet. But they’re perfectly good peas despite that – I’m happy to pick them right off the plant and eat them as a garden snack, pods and all. They’re not amazing to eat that way, unlike crisp juicy snap peas, but they’re fine.
They also produce a LOT more pods than any domesticated pea I’ve grown – most domesticated varieties have one or two pods per node, and Austrian Winter peas have four. Since the seeds are smaller, this doesn’t mean they actually produce more food, but it does mean they produce the same amount.
They can also start growing during much hotter temperatures; they don’t seem to be as bothered by summer heat as most of my peas.
The leaves and (pink) flowers are just as tasty as all pea leaves and flowers.
Wild Pea of Umbria, which I’ve also grown, is almost identical.
I’d personally rather have domesticated peas that are bigger and sweeter and have thicker, crispier, sweeter pods – but I love Austrian Winter peas for being such survivors, and they’re still nice to eat. So I grow both, and I don’t even bother to separate the seeds when I harvest the dry pods for seeds. I just harvest them all together (in early through mid summer) and plant them all together in fall.
I’ve started planting everything Pisum sativum I can get my hands on. I have my favorite varieties, but there are none I dislike, so I want them all. 
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Thanks! That’s the information I was hoping for 
WHOA! That’s AWESOME!
Very interesting, your experience with eating them is valuable to me, I’m glad you enjoy them like a garden snack but how tender/immature do you pink the pods? When you say they make good peas, are you referring to cooking the dry peas like you would yellow pea or beans? Do they also make good greens or are everlasting peas a better green?
WOW! That’s awesome! It be good to lean into that direction for a landrace! Pea shoots make good greens. Imagine mixing the with other wild edibles!
Interesting, I think the Nepal Pea I got from a Nepal Bean Soup Mix is also just as similar too!
What about Pisum fulvum? They have Orange Flowers that sometimes deform to become like thorns!
They can cross with Pisum sativum. Seeds need cracking/chiping to germinate, very thick seedcoats. Some genotypes even form underground pods along with the usual above ground pods.
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Pisum fulvum has such stunning flowers! I’ve never grown them, but I’d be happy to try, if I ever get seeds.
I haven’t tried eating Austrian Winter peas as dried peas yet, because I’m saving all my dried peas for seed right now. (Laugh.) But I’ve eaten them as shelling peas (the pods were too leathery to eat; the peas were fully formed and not dried down yet) and as immature pods (not amazing, but perfectly fine).
The leaves of Austrian Winter peas taste exactly the same as the leaves of domesticated peas: delicious. You could easily enjoy any peas as shoots or microgreens. Old and young leaves of peas are delicious, tastier than the young leaves of everlasting peas, but the flavor is similar; the old leaves of everlasting peas are kinda tough. Probably edible, but not delightful.
I will say that everlasting pea flowers are surprisingly delightful. They taste just like peas, with a floral aftertaste. They’ve turned out to make a great garden snack; thanks for clueing me in to the fact that those parts are edible. 
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Same here, I was talking to someone who had experience with not just growing them but also crossing them with Pisum sativum. Learned a lot from him. Hopefully we can get a chance to play with Pisum fulvum genetics.
Hmm… as shelling peas you say? I wonder how young & tender do shelling pea pods have to be before you can eat them, only right after flowering or are they still too fibrous to eat even then? Not amazing but perfectly fine? Makes me wonder how much quantity can you get from shelling peas? and if you can dry shelling peas off the plant for seeds?
Nice! Probably cuz the greens in both are just as tender right? I’ve heard Pisum fulvum also taste similar. Also does that mean shelling vs snap peas have no difference in the taste of it’s leaves & shoots?
Interesting, so if Peas were Samuel Thayers foraging book, he’d probably rank them higher? I always wondered if the wild edibles get a pass for not tasting as good as the domesticates because they are free & wild. Surly we can breed everlasting peas for better greens but if Domesticated peas already do a Good Job being greens, why not just breed peas for pea shoots then?
AWESOME! Makes me really want to try them. Maybe we can lean into to that trait for domesticating Everlasting peas. If they taste just like peas, it means we don’t have to sacrifice our Pea pods to enjoy pea flower taste. your welcome!
I just wonder if we could make Domesticated Peas perennial like Everlasting pea? Can we graft Pisum onto Lathyrus?
I tend to eat the whole pod if the pod is still firm. Once it gets leathery, the taste is still okay, but the texture is unpalatable, so I just eat the peas inside. It’s a loose dividing line based on whim.
I don’t know what type of pea they specifically use for “pea tips” I find in Chinese markets, but I did find once, while browsing Kitazawa Seed, some variety of pea described as suitable for growing that type of crop. I assume that means it produces a lot of large leaves that don’t toughen up quickly.
For myself, I felt the field pea leaves toughened up quicker than I would have liked for eating as a vegetable (still fine for microgreens if harvested early). When the leaves reached a larger size that I felt were more worth spending time to harvest and prepare, they had gotten kind of stringy. The stems had toughened up somewhat. I don’t recall how that compares to garden pea leaves. I’d need to grow them side by side.
I did see this variety of pea that was promoted specifically for “delicious and tender pea shoots”.
Pea shoots
I decided to purchase 5 pounds of Austrian field peas from Midwest Grass and Forage. I also purchased one pound of Roveja peas from Uprising Seeds. Will plant those as soon as i can get around to working up the soil.
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Oh, good find! Have you ever ordered from them before?
This is my first time buying from this company, but locally they are popular and they’ve been in business for quite a few years. It’s likely that similar businesses exist regionally to serve farmers and CRP holders. Buying local saves a lot on shipping costs. These seeds are sold as cover crops and also for “forage plots” for deer.
Austrian Field Pea/Winter Pea is a selection of P. sativum(soup peas and garden peas). It’s pretty similar to what might have been grown in colder areas of Europe during the medieval period for soup/pottage, as I understand it.