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Sea Island Red Pea
  • Sea Island Red Pea
  • Sea Island Red Pea
  • Sea Island Red Pea
  • Sea Island Red Pea
  • Sea Island Red Pea
  • Sea Island Red Pea
  • Sea Island Red Pea
  • Sea Island Red Pea
  • Sea Island Red Pea
  • Sea Island Red Pea
  • Sea Island Red Pea
  • Sea Island Red Pea
Sea Island Red Pea

Vigna unguiculata
$4.50
Description

The Sea Island Red Pea is a treasured heirloom cowpea from the Gullah Geechee communities of the coastal Southeastern US, traditionally grown in the Sea Islands and Lowcountry. Deeply rooted in Gullah cuisine, these peas are key ingredients in dishes like Hoppin' John and Reezy Peezy, often paired with Carolina Gold Rice.

A nitrogen-fixing plant, it's also a valuable companion crop between crop rotations, and when you need to rest your hot summer garden with a cover crop. They grow exceptionally easy as most cowpeas do in our subtropical climate. This flavorful, prolific southern pea has some short runners and enjoys climbing a trellis, but they also work well as a bushy ground cover with no trellising. The pods are short to medium sized and typically held above the foliage for easy picking. Pods are slender and filled with small red peas. They are also very tasty as a fresh young green pod, if you're looking for a green bean in the middle of summer.

Our offering is a special mix of two strains shared with us by Social Roots and Comfort Farms, both in Georgia and then saved together here in our gardens in North Florida.  From seed to seed the time was very short- about a month and a half! 

Here is a great short documentary about the pea and it's Geechee heritage.
Product details
  • About 30 seeds
  • 60-90 days to harvest
  • Seeds grown in Working Food gardens at GROW HUB in Gainesville, Florida
How to grow

Legumes are able to manufacture their own nitrogen (magic + science!) and typically do not need very rich soil or much fertilization at all. Well composted and healthy soils are still encouraged, but you will not need to offer them much in the way of fertilizer. In fact, too much will encourage rampant leafy growth at the expense of the pods.

Plant about 1"-1.5" deep, spaced 4-8" apart. Cowpeas do not tolerate frosts and so should only be planted well after the last expected frost is over. Cowpeas can also be planted from spring and into late summer/early fall. Direct sowing is recommended as legumes don't appreciate the stress of moving from a pot into the ground.
How to save seeds

Legumes like beans and peas are among the easiest seeds to save! The biggest challenge in Florida is our humidity, which can make it difficult to get seed pods fully dry on the plant. For this reason, late-summer plantings can be especially good for seed saving, as the pods mature into the drier fall weather. Although, weather patterns are getting more unpredictable and this isn't always the case.

Allow the pods to dry indoors once harvested, and shell them soon afterward to reduce the chance of mold and pests taking up residence inside the pods. If the pods are nearly mature but the weather is staying humid, go ahead and harvest them early and finish drying them indoors.

Thorough drying is key to keeping cowpea seeds healthy and reducing the risk of weevils, which can damage or destroy stored seed. Continue drying the seeds with silica gel or clay drying beads, or use a household dehydrator on a low-temperature setting. Make sure the seeds are completely dry before storing.

Cowpeas are highly self-pollinating, so there is generally only a small chance of crossing between varieties. However, some large bumblebees can work their way into the flowers and transfer pollen between plants. This only matters if you are trying to maintain a variety’s purity; if you don’t mind a little genetic mixing, there’s no need to worry about it.

You can successfully save seed from just one plant, but saving from 5–10 plants is better, and 20 or more plants is even better for maintaining genetic diversity and long-term vigor.

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