The Bishop’s Red Pea

The Bishop’s Red Pea is a heritage variety from Sweden. We grow and maintain a small population for genetic conservation and for our own use.

The variety grows to roughly 2m height and has very decorative flowers shifting from purple to deep red.

The young peas are sweet, crispy and the whole pod can be eaten like a mangetout. Fully mature peas are traditionally dried for later use in cooking. As cooked they add a slightly nutty flavour and creamy texture. Great for soups, stews, humus etc.

Each pod has 4-5 peas that will shift to a rich brown red as they are dried.

We have noted that the pea germinated better for us when we did not use a heating table.

Some notes on the origin of the variety

Typically the origin of the varieties is forgotten and the seed banks often simply give the variety the name of the area where they were collected or associated with.

In the case of “The Bishop” it was collected from a family that could trace it back to Sara Stina (b. 1844) and Erik (b.1845) Janson who lived in a place called Biskopsnäset (the headland of the bishop) in county Dalarna, Sweden. The old picture of Erik and Sara Stina in the picture gallery is from the book “Klint Karins kålrot och Kurt Jönssons bondböna”.