Since ancient times, peas have played a significant role in the diet of people. This legume has always been famous for its nutritional qualities, nutritional value, and rich taste.
India, China in ancient times associated peas with wealth and fertility. Greece, Rome gave him a special role among all other products, they prepared him even for royalty.
To this day, the abundance of dishes from this culture is amazing. Every day, plants prepare such delicious dishes from its fruits: soups, cereals, cutlets, sausages, and others. Abundance has one thing in common: proper soaking of this cereal.
Benefit
The benefits of this culture are truly great:
- Beans are very rich in vegetable protein - very attractive to vegetarians or fasting people;
- The fruits contain a huge list of amino acids, which makes it indispensable for athletes;
- Due to the large amount of coarse dietary fiber, the product cleanses the intestines;
- Reduces the risk of developing cancer;
- The nutritional value of peas is much higher than most vegetables, it surpasses even meat in this indicator;
- Contains vitamins of group B, C, A, iron, phosphorus, calcium, and many others;
- Slows down the aging process of the body.
The dish has its own contraindications: it has the ability to cause increased gas production, therefore it is excluded from use by persons suffering from gastrointestinal diseases, gout.
Preparation of beds and planting scheme
A place in the country for sowing peas must be selected dry, open to the sun's rays. At first, it will be mostly cut off by children, so it is better to plant it in the beds located along the paths:
- for early ripening varieties, the ridge can be made no more than half a meter wide, so that children can freely reach the pods on both sides without trampling plantings;
- mid- and late-ripening pea varieties are best placed along the paths in very narrow beds, where you can sow it in 2-3 rows (then it will be easier to fill the bushes on the trellises).
For more convenient harvesting, peas are best planted in narrow beds.
Before sowing, transverse grooves are made on wide ridges, and longitudinal shallow grooves on narrow ridges. The distance between them depends on the variety of peas (how tall the bushes will grow), but on average it is from 15 to 30 cm. Seeds are laid out in grooves every 8-10 cm from each other.
What can you plant peas next to?
Peas saturate the soil with nitrogen, which, of course, will benefit any of its neighbors. Therefore, peas can be considered a useful companion for most vegetables. It is often planted simply between the rows, not even for the sake of the harvest, but as a useful crop.
It is believed that the best neighbors of peas in the beds are cucumbers and carrots. The smell of tomatoes helps fight harmful insects, and corn planted next to it can be an excellent natural support for peas. Another "doctor" that scares the pea moth from planting is mustard. Peas normally coexist with salads, parsley, potatoes and any types of cabbage.
Peas normally coexist with most vegetable crops
But will all the neighbors benefit the peas themselves? Not all, but he does not have very many obvious antagonists.Peas do not like neighborhoods with garlic and onions - excellent healers of garden beds, scaring away many pests with their phytoncides. He does not live very well next to relatives - beans and any varieties of beans.
Why is it difficult to cook peas
The legume plant is a dietary food. Earlier, when people did not think about the problems of dietary healthy nutrition.
But this culture was abundantly represented among the tables of the people of that time. They made porridge, stew, and even baked snacks from it.
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There was no difficulty in preparing the beans, but then it was cooked using the oven. Slow simmering with an open fire helped the dish reach the required readiness.
Now only distant villages have such technologies. Therefore, women have to use other methods of preparing this porridge.
What is the reason for the slow cooking of the beans? It is very rich in starch, protein compounds with almost no moisture. Therefore, to prepare it for the boiling procedure, simmer, bake or fry, depends on the desired end result.
What is soaking for
Soaking peas before planting is controversial. Many gardeners, including myself, prefer to plant seed in a dry way; some gardeners traditionally soak seeds in water or special stimulating compounds. This is done only for one single purpose - to accelerate the germination period.
Strongly dried pea seeds take time to soak, swell and awaken the sprouts. When planting seed directly from a bag into the ground, it is necessary to provide abundant moisture to the beds for the entire germination period, while seedlings will appear for a very long time.
Soaking allows you to shorten the period of emergence of peas: the seeds swell in advance, and when following some methods, they even release roots. This method helps to get sprouts earlier and, as a result, to start harvesting.
Risks associated with soaking
But the method of soaking seeds before planting has certain risks:
- It is believed that pea seeds swelling in moist soil will give more resistant plants, characterized by high yields, while seeds soaked before planting often grow weakened stems.
- When planted dry, the seeds are in an equally moist state with the soil, while deepening the soaked seeds, a situation may arise in which the top layer of the soil becomes dry and begins to naturally take moisture from the grains. It is clear that the sown peas will not sprout in this case.
- With prolonged soaking, aimed at obtaining well-swollen seeds with small roots, there is a risk that the seeds will become moldy. In addition, the root and sprouted sprout may break off during planting - the peas will not sprout after that.
You can soak peas only before the first spring planting - during this period the soil is still sufficiently moistened, therefore, the swollen seed material will not suffer much from overdrying of the earth.
If you repeat the sowing of peas in the summer, then use only the dry method at these stages.
The grains of peas will independently absorb moisture and swell, and if the earth dries up, they will comfortably go into a temporary "hibernation" and, as a result, are guaranteed to rise with sufficient water supply to the beds.
Help to boil
Pea grains can be boiled quickly, taking into account such factors:
- When purchasing it, it is better to choose a chipped product. The nutritional benefits of the dish will be similar, but less time spent.
- The cooks say that Idaho beans are the fastest to cook.
- The grains should be thoroughly rinsed, transferred, and then poured into cold water. Then leave it for 8-10 hours.
- When preparing, it is preferable to use drinking soft water.
- If you need to cook the beans faster, roast them for 15 minutes.
- The simmering of the dish will work better with thick-walled dishes. In this case, it is better to use water from soaking.
Important points.
- Before soaking, the peas should be rinsed in cold water and sorted out, if necessary.
- It is also necessary to soak it exclusively in cold water so that the peas do not sour.
- If you overexpose peas in water, they will sour, foam and smell bad. The soup, accordingly, will turn out to be less tasty and spoil faster.
- There are recommendations for soaking time to change the water every hour so that it does not sour.
- The water in which the peas were soaked is not suitable for further use. They drain it and take it clean.
Soak peas
Soak peas correctly according to the following scheme:
- take the right amount of grains, prepare it (sort through, rinse);
- then pour it completely with cold water;
- add a small amount of NaHCO3 powder, stir. At the rate of 2 tsp. sodium bicarbonate / 100 gr. peas / 1.5 l. water.
The soaking method avoids the problem of flatulence.
Harvesting
Pea harvesting begins around late June-early July. It is carried out repeatedly, as the fruits ripen. Tear off the pods very carefully so as not to damage the stems.
Hulling varieties (used to obtain green peas) are harvested as the formation of green juicy valves is completed and the grains reach their maximum size.
Collecting the shoulder blades of sugar varieties begins when they become fleshy, green, juicy and tender, with underdeveloped seeds. The yield from 1 m² is about 1.5 kg.
To increase yields, picking peas should be carried out daily, cutting off the most suitable ones. Remove dried and overripe pods so that they do not take strength from the plant and do not inhibit the development of young pods.
Full harvesting is carried out when the lower pods are ripe and dry. Cut the plants, bundle them, and hang them in a dark, dry place with good ventilation. Collect the ripened beans and store in an airtight glass container.
How to soak peas for soup
When the pea grits do not soften after 2 hours, and the pea soup needs to be prepared quickly, you will need to follow this recipe:
- Prepare a glass of cereal. Sort out, rinse the peas;
- Pour two liters of water over the peas, then put them on the stove;
- Add 1 tablespoon of baking soda to boiling water;
- Stir the mixture thoroughly, remove the pan;
- Then we cover the dishes with a lid, wait half an hour;
- After the set period, we drain the water, thoroughly rinse the cereals, it remains to fill it with cold water;
- Salt, put the workpiece on medium heat, cook for about 20 minutes more;
- Next, add black pepper.
You just need to add the necessary ingredients. Enjoy your ready-made soup!
What is the procedure for?
Soaking peas is necessary before planting in open ground, since during the storage period the seeds lose moisture and dry out. Sprouted peas quickly appear on the surface of the soil, but ordinary, dry kernels will accumulate moisture for a long time before sprouting.
The basic preparation for planting is to soak the seeds in the spring for a few days or hours before planting. You can prepare planting material without special skills, you just need to collect water in a container and put the kernels there.
Sometimes special solutions are used to stimulate the resistance of plants to stress during bad weather.It is easy to guess that the main task of germination is to accelerate the process of emergence.
The kernels can be placed in the soil only swollen (they should be in the water for about two days) and with sprouts that break through.
On some packages of peas there is an inscription that they do not need to be additionally processed, that is, they should not be warmed up and immersed in water, since they have already gone through this process.
Potassium permanganate is used for disinfection. A weak solution is sufficient, and the soaking time is reduced to only a few hours before planting. Manganese in a more concentrated form should not affect the nuclei for more than half an hour, this time is enough to remove all pathogenic bacteria and spores that can subsequently cause some diseases.
Tap water is not used for soaking, only:
The seeds must remain in a moist environment at all times until they swell and hatch.
How to cook pea porridge
For soft, nutritious pea porridge, you will need to pour a glass of cereal with a liter of water. Then put the pan on the fire, when only the water starts to boil, remove the container from the stove, add soda.
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Sprinkle sodium bicarbonate at the rate of 2 tsp / 2 liters of water. Cover the porridge with a lid, wait half an hour. Then the water is drained, the mixture is washed, the porridge is boiled.
To help the grits cook, butter, which should be added while cooking, will help. It will also help the dish become aromatic and tasty.
If you are on a diet or do not have butter, replace it with sunflower oil. However, it will give those flavoring qualities to this dish.
If you want to keep the shape of the cereal particles, then add the powder after half an hour of boiling, then the beans will retain their round shape. To get mashed potatoes, use a blender or pusher.
Plant care
Caring for this unpretentious plant is simple and includes:
- garter,
- watering,
- top dressing,
- pest and disease control.
In loosening and weeding, unlike most garden crops, peas only need at the beginning of the growing season, while the bushes are very small. It is impossible to loosen the soil between adult bushes because of the density of the stems at their base, but you can add dry mulch.
It is impossible to loosen and weed adult pea bushes because of the densely growing stems
Weeding the grown peas is almost an impossible task: it is dangerous to uproot the weeds because the roots of the peas themselves can be damaged.
Pea supports
Most varieties of peas require an obligatory support. A garter is usually not needed, he himself clings to any sticks and ropes. For low-stemmed varieties, it will be enough to place a palisade of sticks no more than 50 cm high along the edges of the bed and tie twine or wire on them in several rows, and the rows are tied as the bushes grow.
Video: peas with flowers and pods on a simple trellis
Peas of late varieties grow up to 2 meters or more, high stakes are needed, therefore trellises are often arranged instead of them. They can be built from any available materials:
- tie a metal or plastic mesh with large cells to the vertical posts;
- drive in strong stakes along the edges of the beds and stretch a wire between them in several rows, depending on the height of the peas.
You can make a trellis for peas from wooden planks and metal mesh
Watering
In summer, peas need watering (if there is no rain, and the ground dries up). This culture is moisture-loving, but it can withstand short-term droughts. Plants mainly need water during flowering and filling of peas. If there is practically no rain, one watering per week is enough for peas before flowering, and after the flowers appear, the frequency of watering should be doubled.
Peas need a lot of water during flowering
In moderately rainy seasons in most of our country, you can do without watering.
Fertilizers
It is worthwhile to coincide with watering and top dressing:
- the first feeding is carried out at the beginning of flowering,
- the second - when the first pods appear.
To do this, you need to dissolve a tablespoon of azofoska in a bucket of water and pour this solution over a square meter of the garden. If there is rotted cow dung, a handful of it can be diluted in a bucket of water and used the next day in the same way. Before and after feeding, the beds with peas must be watered.
Treatment against diseases and pests
Peas have a lot of diseases and pests (for example, pea weevil, pea moth), and in summer cottages, prevention consists mainly in careful observance of all rules of agricultural technology. You can process the planting with folk remedies several times:
- decoction of capsicum;
- infusions of tobacco, celandine, tomato tops, garlic, wormwood.
The larva of the pea weevil damages the peas in the pod
Reviews of people
Elena
Girls, maybe someone will come in handy! Soaked peas for 12 hours before cooking. Now I added soda, the cereals swelled in literally half an hour. The multicooker cooked it in an hour. Previously, the same variety of legumes had to be tortured for three hours, but it is still hard. It's that simple!
Vera
Always when I cooked pea soup or porridge, I could not quickly boil the cereal. Even pre-soaking was of little help. About a year ago, my aunt told a secret. Thanks soda. Now the cereal is altogether, I just rinse it, pour it with boiling water and soda. I'm waiting for an hour. I just wash it well. You can cook!
Tanya
I always used soda, my grandmother also told me. It significantly reduces the cooking time of pea porridge. The family is very fond of soup, pea porridge. I don't know what I would do without soda.
