Charmette Petit Pois Garden Pea is a beloved European heirloom that brings pure delight to the garden and kitchen. These remarkably compact plants, reaching just 18-24 inches tall, produce an abundance of tiny, sweet pods packed with perfectly sized peas that taste like concentrated garden candy. Growing in zones 3-10 and reaching harvest in just 55-65 days, this cultivar proves that the best things come in small packages. The plants themselves are as charming as their name suggests, thriving in cool-season gardens and rewarding gardeners with prolific harvests of mini pods that are as fun to grow as they are to eat.
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3-10
24in H x ?in W
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Low
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Every part of Charmette lives up to its miniature reputation, from the delicate vines to the diminutive pods overflowing with tiny, intensely sweet peas. These European favorites were developed for their remarkable productivity on compact plants, making them surprisingly generous producers despite their petite stature. The flavor is concentrated and pure, delivering the essence of fresh garden peas in every bite. Gardeners love them for their playful size, quick maturity, and the sheer volume of adorable pods that emerge throughout the season.
Charmette peas are eaten fresh, straight from the pod if you can resist the urge to eat them in the garden. They're celebrated in butter-glazed preparations, spring vegetable mixes, and light salads where their delicate flavor takes center stage. The tiny pods can be eaten whole when very young, and the peas themselves are perfect for any dish where you want concentrated sweetness without the starchy bulk of larger varieties. They're equally at home in elegant French preparations or simply shelled and eaten raw as a garden snack.
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Sow Charmette peas directly into the garden in early spring as soon as soil is workable, or in late summer for a fall crop. The frost-tolerant nature of these peas means you can plant several weeks before your last spring frost. Press seeds 1 to 1.5 inches deep into prepared soil, spacing them 2 inches apart. Seeds will sprout in 10-30 days depending on soil temperature.
Begin harvesting Charmette peas 55-65 days after sowing. Pick pods when they're plump but still tender, before the individual peas become hard or the pod skin toughens. The small size of these peas means you can harvest frequently without waiting for the pod to fully mature. Gentle, regular harvesting encourages the plant to continue producing fresh pods throughout the season. For the sweetest flavor, pick in the morning and use promptly.
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“Charmette Petit Pois represents a European tradition of breeding garden peas for refinement and elegance rather than sheer size. The petit pois category, meaning 'small peas' in French, emerged from sophisticated culinary traditions where delicate, sweet peas were prized for their superior flavor and tender texture. This heirloom cultivar carries that legacy forward, preserved and grown by gardeners who understand that excellence in vegetables is measured not in bulk but in taste and the joy of the growing process. Its continued popularity among seed savers and home gardeners speaks to the enduring appeal of these charming, high-quality peas.”