History of cultivated peas : The pea is a plant cultivated very anciently in the Old World since its cultivation probably began around 8 years ago in the region of the Fertile Crescent, in the same process as certain cereals (wheat, barley) and others legumes (vetch, lentil). Remains from either harvested plants or domesticated plants have been discovered in Neolithic archaeological sites from Greece to Iraq between 000 and 7 years BC. Subsequently, its culture spread to the west (Europe) and the east (India). Traces of it can be found in particular in the archaeological site of Troy, in central Europe (around 500 years ago), in Western Europe and in India (around 5 years ago). Remains of peas have been found particularly in lake habitats from the early Bronze Age in Switzerland and France (Lac du Bourget). Peas were cultivated in ancient times by the Greeks and Romans. It is notably cited by Theophrastus in his History of Plants in the 000rd century BC. AD, then by Columella (De re rustica) and Pliny in his Natural History written around the year 4 AD. According to Columelle, the pea was sown, like other legumes, at the autumn equinox, in “loose and light soil”.
Around the year 800, under Charlemagne, the pea was cited under the name of pisos mauriscos among the vegetable plants recommended in the De Villis Chapter. Dried peas, easy to preserve, constituted one of the main food resources of the poor classes throughout the Middle Ages. They are often cooked with bacon.
In the Viandier de Taillevent, which dates back to the XNUMXth century, there is the recipe for cretonnée de pois nouvelle, a thick stew with peas; however, the “new peas” in question would not yet be “peas”.
The introduction of the pea to the New World was first made in Santo Domingo by Christopher Columbus during his first voyage to America.
The consumption of whole pods (snap peas or snow peas) has been documented since the XNUMXth century in the Netherlands and France. The mange-tout is mentioned by Jean Ruel in his work De Natura Stirpium frees published in 1536.
The consumption of peas (fresh green grain) developed in France during the time of Louis XIV. It was on January 18, 1660 that Mr. Audiger (or Audiguier), food officer of the Countess of Soissons, presented green peas in pods brought from Italy to the court of King Louis XIV. They were shelled and prepared in the French style for the king, the queen and the cardinal and this was the start of a fashion which was all the rage at the Court, flattered by the precocity of the product.
In the XNUMXth century, the Irish poet Oliver Goldsmith, who traveled several times to France, attacked the “French style” cooking of peas, which he accused in his letters of toxicity.
Thomas Jefferson, who was the third president of the United States, from 1801 to 1809, passionate about science and in particular agronomy, was very interested in viticulture, but also in peas. He cultivated many varieties, the precocity of which he sought to improve on his estate at Monticello.
During the 250th century, the popularity of peas spread in France and the number of varieties increased. Denaiffe and sons, breeders, listed around 1906 in their work on vegetable peas published in XNUMX. This quote attributed to Gustave Flaubert, who raised ducks, testifies to this craze. He used to exclaim when his birds became too noisy: “It seems to me that it is time to shell the peas”.
Towards the end of the XNUMXth century, the production of “split peas”, dried peas from which the relatively indigestible seed coat was removed by abrasion, developed.
Since the beginning of the XNUMXth century, the production of peas has become industrialized in Western countries (Europe, North America) thanks to the development of canning in jars or cans and freezing. This movement is accompanied by open field cultivation which is rapidly becoming mechanized.
In the 1920s, an American inventor, Clarence Birdseye, founder of the General Seafood company, produced the first frozen peas.
In 1926, the American company Minnesota Valley Canning Company, which later took the name Green Giant, created the “Géant Vert” brand to market peas, larger than the usual peas. This brand, still used, became the property of General Mills. The same year, in France, the Bonduelle company, which had become the number one in Europe for canned vegetables, produced its first cans of peas at the Bonduelle factory in Renescure (North).
From 1979, an American seed company, Rogers (a subsidiary of Syngenta), marketed under the name “ sugar snap pea », a new cultivar of the fleshy-podded snow pea variety whose market is growing in the United States. This type of pea was already known in the past; among the peas without parchment presented by Vilmorin-Andrieux in Les Plantes potagères (first edition in 1883) there was a variety called "butter peas" with fleshy pods whose thickness reached half a centimeter.
Dried peas experienced new development towards the end of the XNUMXth century, mainly aimed at animal feed, first in Europe, then in Canada and Australia in particular.
In Europe, particularly in France, the cultivation of protein peas developed significantly in the 1970s and 1980s as a source of protein for animal feed. The trigger was the embargo decreed in 1973 by the United States on its exports of soybean meal, which highlighted Europe's strategic dependence on imports of plant-based proteins.
In France, the cultivated areas thus increased from 500 hectares in 1977 to 500 hectares in 000. Since the end of the 1985s, the areas sown with peas have tended to decline due to the relative drop in Community aid, and the stagnation of yields, reaching 1990 hectares in 100. Established in 000, a French “protein plan” for specific subsidies increased the cultivated area to 2008 hectares in 200936.
Since the beginning of the 1990s, Canada, seeking to diversify its agricultural production, has doubled its production of dry peas (grown mainly in the provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta), of which it has become the world's leading producer and also the leading exporter. , particularly to India – mainly for human food outlets.
In 1998, a consensual genetic map of pea was established and validated by the results obtained in three different laboratories.