Ne Plus Ultra

Thursday, 10 September 2009 12:55

Ne Plus Ultra is an old-fashioned tall pea which needs to be grown on adequate supports. In fact it's one of the tallest, so you should allow for up to 7ft of luxurious top-heavy growth. The name means "nothing better", which might be pushing the bounds of credibility somewhat, although it does date back at least to the 1840s so it may have been the best thing available at the time. It's a vigorous plant with large leaves. Flowers are a bright pure white. It's not intended as a mangetout type, and eaten raw the young pods taste quite bitter, although they're pleasantly crunchy. It's much better to let them develop into full size peas and shell them out. Pods are long, large, elegant and smooth and would probably make a nice exhibition pea for those who are so inclined. They only turn leathery at full maturity. The peas themselves are well packed into the pod, averaging eight to ten peas each. And the flavour is pretty damn fantastic when the peas are young. It doesn't quite reach the same pinnacle as Alderman but it's pretty close, and it's actually probably even sweeter than Alderman, although the flavour is less rich and complex overall. If you like your peas as sweet as sweet can be, this is a good choice. However, you do have to grab them while they're young if you want the flavour at its best. Mature peas go starchy and develop a certain firmness of texture. Not that there's necessarily anything wrong with that if you like peas with a bit of substance to them. Not quite mature, but this is the optimum size to harvest Ne Plus Ultra if you want to enjoy the flavour at its sweetest. Go to table of pea varieties