← All notes

🫛 The soup pea that likes it cold

The peas in split pea soup look like garden peas, but they're a different crop with a surprising home — up in the cold, dry north.

✅ What we know (fact)

The sweet peas you eat fresh from a pod (garden peas) and the dry (field) peas grown for soup are close cousins but different crops. Field peas are left on the plant until they dry hard, then harvested like tiny beans.

Basis: Agronomy: garden (green) peas vs. dry/field peas are distinct crop types, harvested fresh vs. dried — established.

✅ What we know (fact)

A dried pea is split in two along the seed's natural line — that's the “split” in split pea soup. Green and yellow split peas are the same crop, just different colors.

Basis: Culinary/botany: split peas are dried field peas split (mechanically) along the seed's natural line between its two halves — well documented.

✅ What we know (fact)

Dry peas are a pulse — a dried edible legume seed, like lentils, chickpeas and dry beans — and they grow best in the cool, dry north. Montana grows the most, with North Dakota close behind: the same “pulse belt” as lentils.

Basis: USDA NASS dry-pea production by state (this site's dry-peas quiz); cool-season pulse agronomy — established.

✅ What we know (fact)

Today dried peas are also ground into pea protein, which turns up in plant-based milks and veggie burgers.

Basis: Food-industry use: pea protein from dry peas is widely used in plant-based foods — well documented.

Split pea soup, crunchy roasted peas, or a veggie burger made with pea protein — which pea food would you try first?

📊 Sources for the rankings mentioned in this note (links to the original data and retrieval dates) are on each quiz page below.

🎯 Check it in the connected quizzes

Which state grows the most dry peas? 🫛 Which state grows the most lentils? 🫛 Which state grows the most chickpeas? 🧆