“Sweet” corn is called sweet corn for a reason. Corn is actually a grain. And sweet corn is harvested when the grain is still green, or unripe (in other words). Then it is usu. eaten as a vegetable.
So why then do they (often?) call Peas “Sweet Peas”? “Sweet” as opposed to what?
It appears that the sweet pea is something different from the edible pea:
Yes, there is a flowering plant called the “sweet pea,” but sweet peas are also a name of an edible pea.
As to “as opposed to what?” I don’t know. There’s a bunch of different peas, generally under the categories garden peas, snow peas, and snap peas. I believe sweet peas are usually a sweeter type of garden pea.
There are also field peas which are sometimes used as livestock feed.
The flowering non edible plant is called sweet pea because it has a sweet smell (and it’s a pea plant). The cans say “Sweet Green Peas” because most peas used for commercial canning are immature, which means that the sugar in them hasn’t had time to convert to starch, which means they’re sweeter.
From Wikipedia
The peas used for split pea soup are not sweet.
BTW, sweet corn is a variety of corn that’s bred for a high sugar content. It’s not just immature corn.
Well, most say “sweet peas,” actually, at least here in the US.
Sweet peas vs field peas
Sweet corn vs field corn
I’m not seeing a huge difference in usage here.
And corn and peas are commonly listed as vegetables with high sugar content.
http://getfit.jillianmichaels.com/list-sugary-vegetables-2301.html
Making pea soup with dried peas is a whole other dish than making soup with fresh green peas. (Sweet corn differs from the ‘cow corn’ growing in the fields right at this moment, the sweet corn is now diminishing in the market.)
Yes, and sweet peas are toxic, so it is rather important not to get them confused. Sweet peas are cultivated for their blooms, not for food. Do not get them confused with peas that happen to be sweet.
I do not know why they are called sweet, however. Possibly their seeds do have a sweet taste despite their toxicity, or perhaps it a reference to a sweet fragrance from the flower, or something like that.
So Tommy Roe could write that song.
If you ever smelled a Sweet Pea (especially an ‘unimproved’ or heritage variety which retains the original intense fragrance), you wouldn’t have to ask why they are called that. In my mind, there are the two leguminous plants:
Sweet Peas (the annual flowering vine), Lathrus odoratus
sweet peas and dried peas (or, for the one-upping, pease), Pisum sativum harvested at different times in their growth cycle, like sweet corn and dried or field corn, Zea mays. Originally they were the same variety but since the traits desired were different, both corn and peas have become divided into types.
In the Olden Days, we literally got the water boiling before we went out to pick sweet corn, because as soon as it was picked its sugars started turning to starch. Mutation and selection changed that, and now corn bred to be eaten fresh has a shelf life, as the sugars don’t turn to starch anymore once picked.
Well, duh. Because we are.
As opposed to yams being what they yam.
