information:extraction
History

The wild pea is restricted to the Mediterranean Basin and the Near East. The earliest archaeological finds of peas date from the late Neolithic era of current Syria, Anatolia, Israel, Iraq, Jordan and Greece. In Egypt, early finds date from c. 4800 –4400 BC in the Nile delta area, and from c. 3800–3600 BC in Upper Egypt. The pea was also present in Georgia in the 5th millennium BC. Farther east, the finds are younger. Peas were present in Afghanistan c. 2000 BC, in Harappan civilization around modern-day Pakistan and western- and northwestern India in 2250–1750 BC. In the second half of the 2nd millennium BC, this legume crop appears in the Ganges Basin and southern India.

In early times, peas were grown mostly for their dry seeds. From plants growing wild in the Mediterranean Basin, constant selection since the Neolithic dawn of agriculture improved their yield. In the early 3rd century BC, Theophrastus mentions peas among the legumes that are sown late in the winter because of their tenderness. In the first century AD, Columella mentions them in De re rustica, when Roman legionaries still gathered wild peas from the sandy soils of Numidia and Judea to supplement their rations.

In the Middle Ages, field peas are constantly mentioned, as they were the staple that kept famine at bay, as Charles the Good, count of Flanders, noted explicitly in 1124.

Green "garden" peas, eaten immature and fresh, were an innovative luxury of Early Modern Europe. In England, the distinction between field peas and garden peas dates from the early 17th century: John Gerard and John Parkinson both mention garden peas. Sugar peas, which the French called mange-tout, because they were eaten pods and all, were introduced to France from the market gardens of Holland in the time of Henri IV, through the French ambassador. Green peas were introduced from Genoa to the court of Louis XIV of France in January 1660, with some staged fanfare. A hamper of them was presented before the King. They were shelled by the Savoyan comte de Soissons, who had married a niece of Cardinal Mazarin. Little dishes of peas were then presented to the King, the Queen, Cardinal Mazarin and Monsieur, the king's brother. Immediately established and grown for earliness warmed with manure and protected under glass, they were still a luxurious delicacy in 1696, when Mme de Maintenon and Mme de Sevigné each reported that they were "a fashion, a fury".

The world’s first sweet tasting pea was developed in the 18th century by amateur plant breeder Thomas Edward Knight of Downton, near Salisbury, England.

Modern split peas, with their indigestible skins rubbed off, are a development of the later 19th century.

The top producer of green peas – by far – is China with 12.2 million tons, followed by India (4.8 million tons), USA (0.31 million tons), France (0.23 million tons) and Egypt (0.15 million tons). United Kingdom, Pakistan, Algeria, Peru and Turkey complete the top 10.