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However much pea seeds cost, I'm surprised that they don't cost more.

Last year I was down to my final seed of several varieties of Peace Seedlings peas, so I sowed them in order to get enough seeds for this year.  Well, one produced 2, two produced 3 and Ruby Beauty produced 6. 

It sure must take a lot of plants to produce enough seeds to sell.

Sorry you had so much trouble with seed saving.  Ruby Beauty here was outstanding.  Handled the heat and was almost the last standing, in up to 38C heat. Watered daily though.  And saving seeds happened almost by itself from a few missed pods here and there which did not seem to slow down production  either.  I was really smitten by this pea, which this year was first time around, as I had only just got seeds for it.  Also I was amazed at the quality of the red, which right to the end stayed bright red, only really late in the season, we got a few half yellow, half red pods.  This was a better red than I get from my own bred red varieties and they aren't bad.   Hope your few seeds will really produce well for you, next time you grow them. 

The only other commercial pea that did almost well was Spring Blush and also one of my own bred small snap peas which has Sugar Magnolia in its ancestry.       

That red star pattern in the second photo is really special. 

Opal Creek pea was tested in Hawai and may be one of the most heat tolerant peas. 

I believe they are the same.  They certainly look the same.  Essentially, Queen de Malinalco belongs in the fruit bowl, rather than in salsa.  A bit like the little ground cherries, which are sweet, but larger and less juicy.

Just rereading this thread.  A variety that seems to last well into summer and cope with some heat, is Opal Creek. 

We did a collection of pea flower colours a little white ago.  There is gf the green flowering gene.  https://www.growingfoodsavingseeds.co.uk/forum/breeding-and-genetics/new-channel/7493-pea-flower-colour-genetics

I think I must have been reincarnated from a medieval farmer.  We eat almost all of them.  Also tried crambe maritima, but this didn't grow - too cold even in central England.  Whereas Welsh onion, land cress and Corn lettuce aka lamb's lettuce we ate just minutes ago for lunch.  Excellent survivors in our winters and fabulous this time of year. 

Scorzonera is a favourite, beautiful yellow flowers too, as is salsify with its blue flowers.  For some reason some scorzonera flowers are double or filled flowers, both make a great ornamental feature in the garden.  Their flower buds and leaves are also edible.  And you can leave scorzonera in the ground for two years, when they make truly fat roots.  More useful than salsify, which goes woody on flowering. 

I sow turnips late in the season.  Depending on the arrival of winter, we may get some late roots, but the foliage always survives and makes a lot of 'greens' in early spring. Magenta Spreen, a form of Fat Hen with a pink centre, is starting to come up right now at the earliest opportunity, always self seeds and comes up by itself, no spinach sowing needed.  And the Welsh onions have supplied us with onion greens, with only a quick pause during the coldest months, and they are now growing again.  We use them chopped like chives on our lunchtime salads every day.  Lovage has not made an appearance yet.  And is struggling here a bit generally.  But in England we had a patch of it, always one of the earliest to pop up and so good chopped in omelettes.  I have tried starting skirret from seeds, which need stratifying, so far without success unfortunately.  If I can beg a root from somebody (unfortunately I have never met a skirret grower anywhere), I will surely give that a try too. 

What a wonderfully useful video.  Everybody should have a few of these in their garden.  And what they say about the nutritional value of these, is definitely worth noting.  Thank you Diane.       

Those are some prominent speckles on those leaves galina. And the red streaks on the plant look pretty cool.

Unfortunately it was, I believe, simply weather related that particular year.  Have never since seen them this prominent since and not at all last year.  The white spots have a simple explanation, something like air bubbles iirr. But it was pretty, I must say. 

The most 'variegated' I have had is Schweizer Riesen.  There is a lot of white in the foliage and as the red from the axil colour is also 'bleeding' into the leaves, this was quite pretty. 

Any runnerbean can be eaten fresh if the pods are grown very fast.  This means you need good, fertile soil and a lot of watering.  And preferably a spell of cool weather, rather than the heat of summer.  Having said that and compared runnerbeans growing between England and much hotter South German summers, the pink flowered varieties are doing fine for me for pods, the red ones not so much.  Celebration has been particularly good for fresh pods, even in very hot weather.  I did keep up with watering daily during the hot weather. 

I had heard that they are eaten raw when small in some countries, even the whole pod, but I haven't tried that yet.

They are nice eaten whole and usually earlier than beans.

Albino in beans equals moribund, ie not going to make it.  I have occasionally seen it in beans, but never seen it in peas.  A complete lack of chlorophyll would mean the same, the plant wouldn't live.  Neither have I ever seen variegated pea plants, ie with green leaves, but with pale yellow or white edges.   

Given how readily valeriana officinalis self seeds, it is effectively acting like a perennial already.  No work required at all to keep it going year after year, apart from harvesting.  Its self seeding feature does close the hungry gap for us, until the lettuces take over again. At the moment I pull a small bowl full most days (February).

I am interested to learn how the perennial form differs from the annual. Does aureus mean that it has yellow leaves?   

They are our mainstay salad plant at the moment, mid February.  They survive frost and snow cover and just 'give'.  A little fiddly in the kitchen, as you need to pick off the root, otherwise its just a wash.  Any not harvested self seed generously and reappear as a carpet of little plants in late autumn for winter use.  Their taste is like lettuce, not in itself very exciting, but a welcome fresh green when little else is available for sandwich garnishes or side salads, to go with our preserved pickled cucumbers and dilly beans.   

Diane, that is a good long time to keep the same plants growing.  Mine are barely 3 years old.  Only two of them have flowered so far, one sparsely.  And we ate the flowers as broccoli.

From now on I will concentrate on perpetuating the best by cuttings, like I do with the Daubentons, as I don't know how many years they will survive here. Frost hardiness is a very important consideration here.  One of them, that made it fine through last year's winter, looks quite bad this year, we will see how it gets through the rest of the cold season. The others are fine.  It is becoming quite obvious, which ones I will take cuttings from.  The Daubentons I brought from England are not fully hardy here.  Without cuttings in the greenhouse I would have lost them by now.  The Kaleidoscopes are much hardier, but even they have their limits. Our frosts can easily reach 0 Fahrenheit or colder.   

I have the rest of my seed packet safely stored in the freezer, if I need more plants.  I am very grateful to Chris Homanics for these kales.