Are small peas mounge tout ?

[Dipzy]

I know this sounds silly but I am growing peas and have subsequently started growing mounge tout. The peas at the moment look like MT so I picked a few for my kids tea and they were quite tough for them to bite through and then had to rip to eat/chew them. The peas inside I have to say, although small were very tasty.

I wasn't sure if the peas, mounge tout and sugar snap peas are pretty much the same but harvested at different times ?

Advise / suggestions please. I also went and planted in some MT with some peas so am now really unsure if I did the right thing, just wanted to make the most out of my compost so put them in together. Silly me.....

Also tried asparagus for the first time last week, yummy, their appearance always put me off. Got the kids to try to and sort of like it.

[shirlthegirl43]

I think mange tout and sugar snap peas have different pod characteristics to regular peas. As you say, the pods are tougher on the regular peas while they are softer or crunchier on the other types. Not sure how you will be able to distinguish between mange tout and peas sown together. You could wait for the pods to fill out and then shell the mange tout so that all the peas are enjoyed together rather than trying to crunch through the tougher pods.

[Winged one]

You can certainly keep growing the mangetout and just harvest them as regular peas - I think Shirl is right, trying to tell the difference when all in the same area might be difficult so probably best to let them all become peas this time around. I know a good few of my MT got too big to eat as MT last year and we just shelled them and ate them as normal peas.

This year, we put the MT in the back garden (so that we can pick and eat all week) and the peas on the plot (safer from the toddler and less of a need to pick daily - once or twice a week should be ok for those).