If you intend to grow peas, you will have to make a lot of effort, as this plant is sometimes quite capricious, and does not want to grow properly. However, everything is relative – if it were so complicated, peas would not be grown around the world in incredible quantities. In addition, this plant is very valuable, and dishes from it can be found in the cuisines of various nations.
The very concept of heredity in biology was discovered thanks to peas. The Austrian scientist Mendel studied this plant, and thanks to his study, heredity was discovered. As an experiment, peas were grown on the ISS under zero gravity. Farmers know that after peas in its former place other crops grow very well. And all because the roots of this plant contain a lot of nitrogen, which is a valuable fertilizer. After harvesting the pea crop, the roots remain in the ground and rot, enriching the soil. Peas were known to our ancestors in the territory of modern Russia about 2500 years ago. Archaeologists have established that peas became the first cultivated plant that was grown by people thousands of years ago in Central Asia and the Middle East. Peas were part of wedding ceremonies among a number of peoples, in particular among the Poles.
The starch obtained from it is used in the production of modern bioplastics. A thousand years ago, peas were the most cultivated crop in the British Isles. The ancient Chinese considered peas, and not rice, a symbol of wealth and fertility. More than half of the world’s pea crop is harvested in three countries – China, Russia and Canada. But the superiority in its production is firmly held by the Chinese. In the Middle Ages, peas in Europe were as important a part of nutrition as rice in Asia. At the end of the 19th and first half of the 20th centuries, pea sausage, which was made from pea flour, lard and meat, was consistently included in the army ration. People eat peas from time immemorial, but the so-called “green peas”, that is, not yet ripened, began to be eaten about three hundred years ago.
Konstantin Paustovsky, a famous writer, in his work “The Black Sea” described the case when peas caused a shipwreck. It simply got wet, increased in volume and damaged the ship, which as a result sank. Peas are pea seeds. Strictly speaking, they do not apply to vegetables. There are seven types of peas in the world. Much less than there are types of beans, of which there are several hundred. Among all the vegetable crops used for food, peas occupy the second place after lentils in terms of protein content. Beans are slightly inferior to him in this parameter. Archaeologists have discovered pea seeds in Switzerland, whose age is about 20 thousand years.
The protein content in peas is comparable to that in beef. True, it is a vegetable protein, not an animal, but it is useful, and is well absorbed. Regular consumption of peas in moderation helps the body get rid of excess bile, and also reduces the risk of blood clots in blood vessels. Ordinary peas, the one that is grown in almost all countries, can grow up to two meters in height. It contains a huge amount of fiber, which helps to eliminate toxins and excess fluid from the body. When and where people first began to cultivate peas is not known for certain. But in ancient China and in ancient India, he was already widely known. True, flour was usually made from it. The total yield of peas worldwide is about 15 million tons per year. Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the USA, was fond of growing peas in his spare time. On his land, he cultivated about thirty varieties of this plant.
