Sure :) I love peas. For sweet eating peas my favorite is Alderman pea also called Tall telephone pea. It grows very VERY tall, produces in the last part of the season and is not the most prolific, but for flavor can't be beat. Really, peas just aren't as prolific as I'd like them anyhow. We plant many varities of peas with different dates of maturity so we don't have to wait till the end of the season to eat peas, but tall telephone is everyone's favorite here. We shell them as soon as they grow and eat them in the garden. Our dog runs to catch the pods.

I don't see Alderman or Tall Telephone in the list.

Have you had any experience with any of the ones available at Stokes this year?

I'm sorry but I don't buy from Stokes. I have a few heirloom oriented companies here in the states that I buy from. I save seed, but I believe the seed I have started at Bakers Creek.

I went to the site with Canadian options...I don't know any of those peas. I don't know what the rules are about shipping seed to Canada, but I have some.

That's OK, but thanks anyway!

I'll be going to the store regardless, so I'll just choose a type there. I just thought someone might have had experience with some of those peas.

I'm leaning toward the Lincoln peas or the Encore peas...

None of Stokes offering of shelling type peas are really climbing. One of few out there is Tall Tejlephone or Alderman. Snap peas, Sugar Snap, Super Sugar Snap are climbers. I have grown several of the Stokes listed varieties. Strike has been the best performer. Laxton's Progress is a prolific producer but not as sweet. Mr.Big has huge pods and peas and is a reasonable producer. Bolero is pretty good. Knight was somewhat of a dissapointment. All of them top out at about 3 feet.
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Thanks farmerdill...

I'm going to take another look at Strike.

The only Stokes listed variety I've grown before is Cascadia (snap pea), and I was happy with it. This year I'll be trying Sabre for the first time.

(in 2012 my pea varieties were Laxtons Progress [unimproved], Sugar Daddy and Tall Telephone)

I like Lincoln and old heirloom available from Harris Seeds in Rochester, NY. They have Mail Order.

I was looking at the Lincoln originally. Are they pretty prolific?

I really like Strike, very sweet and tasty. It's an early pea, and you can grow succession plantings or maybe get a 2nd crop on the early planting.

But it's also a relatively small pod with fewer seeds than some others, particularly the oldfashioned tall varieties.

The Lincoln pea is later in the season and I think very tasty even if the pods get a bit on the large size. I had reasonable production and they only get a couple feet high. I just used branches from my butterfly bush to support the vines to make seeing the pods easier.

I really love black eye peas. Webuy it dry if wefind it in the store and cook it. I decided to plant some this year but the problem is nobody sells the seed. When I asked the local farm store they said that they can order it for me I ordered one pound seed also orderedone pound of fava bean seeds.

Don't know where you are but I have never encountered a local seed outlet south of the Mason Dixon that did not carry California #5. Most of us oldtimers just buy a couple of pounds in the dry beans section of the grocery. Many of the commercial varieties are better then Cal # 5.