Sugar snap peas

Sugar snap peas, although all-edible like snow peas, are quite different in that they are curved, plump, crisp, and succulent and contain an array of full-grown sweet peas. Sugar snaps are frequently hailed as a new “invention,” but their existence is documented in late 17th-century gardening journals, where they are called “sugar pease with crooked pods” or “sickle peas.” In 1885, they were described and illustrated under the heading “butter peas” in the invaluable compendium of garden vegetables (which includes 170 pea varieties) by members of the Vilmorin family, proprietors of one of the oldest and largest seed houses in the world. In 1928, “butter sugar” peas were available from the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station at Geneva, New York, and similar peas were introduced later. In 1967, the Agway seed company proclaimed: “Here it is again—the edible podded variety that so many have asked for since it was discontinued 3 years ago.”