[Community_garden] New Southernpeas

[Sharon Gordon]

Both sound like good beans for heat.  The WhipperSnapper looks like it will
be especially versatile since it can be eaten as a green snap bean.

Sharon
gordonse at one.net
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STORY LEAD:
New Southernpeas Developed by ARS, Cooperators
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ARS News Service
Agricultural Research Service, USDA
Marcia Wood, (301) 504-1662, marcia.wood at ars.usda.gov
July 18, 2007
--View this report online, plus photos and related stories, at
www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr
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Two new varieties of southernpeas--WhipperSnapper and GreenPack-DG--boast
attractive colors, pleasing textures and flavors, plus nutrients like
protein and folate, a B vitamin. Agricultural Research Service (ARS)
research leader Richard L. Fery co-developed these superior southernpeas.

Fery described the research that led to the rich green color of GreenPack-DG
in the June issue of HortScience. WhipperSnapper will be featured in an
article in the same journal later this year, according to Fery. He's based
at ARS' U.S. Vegetable Laboratory in Charleston, S.C., where he also
develops new and improved bell and habañero peppers.

Both southernpeas were offered to seed producers and researchers for the
first time in 2006, after years of laboratory, greenhouse and field tests,
Fery noted.

Southernpeas technically are beans, not peas. They are sometimes called
cowpeas, black-eyed peas, field peas or crowders. Southernpeas appear in
traditional southern cuisine in soups, salads, casseroles and fritters, a
fried quick-bread.

GreenPack-DG forms long, slightly curved pods that hold 12 plump,
olive-green peas, each with a pink eye. It is the only pink-eyed southernpea
that has two genes for greenness, not just one. Its "DG" initials stand for
"double green."

The double-green feature is the work of genes called green cotyledon and
green testa. The genes ensure that the peas won't lose some of their green
color while growers are waiting for the pods to become dry enough to
machine-harvest and to shell the peas from the pods.

Double-greenness gives GreenPack-DG a significant advantage over Charleston
Greenpack, an earlier southernpea from Fery's laboratory that has only one
greenness gene. In fact, Fery expects GreenPack-DG to replace the earlier
southernpea as a favorite for processing into frozen pea products.

GreenPack-DG resulted from cooperative research conducted by ARS and Western
Seed Multiplication, Inc., Wadmalaw Island, S.C.

WhipperSnapper yields pods packed with 14 creamy-white, kidney-shaped peas.
It can be picked when the pods are still immature, tender and edible, then
sold as fresh snaps. The pods also can be left on the vine until ready to
sell with full-sized peas either within the pods, or shelled.

This southernpea flourishes in weather that's too hot for some other beans.
Also, it is extremely easy to shell, a feature that should make it
especially popular with home gardeners, who typically shell by hand.
Larger-scale growers will find the southernpea suitable for mechanical
harvesting.

Fery developed WhipperSnapper with colleagues from Louisiana State
University-Baton Rouge and Lincoln University, Jefferson City, Mo.

ARS is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief scientific research
agency.
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ARS News Service, Information Staff, Agricultural Research Service
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