In contrast to the commercially prepared product, fresh or home frozen southern peas have much more flavor and better texture. My favorite variety is Colossus, a great tasting, highly productive pea that practically hands you its long pods of marble-sized peas. My father grew crowder peas, which have a robust flavor and produce a dark liquor when cooked. Cream, or conch, peas have the mildest flavor. They are more similar to dried beans than either crowder or black-eyed peas, and make a clear liquor when cooked.
Snap peas are most popular where summers are too hot for snap beans.
It's understandable that many gardeners think that southern peas grow only in the southern states. It's not true. Home gardeners Jerry Moeller of Fort Covington, New York, Dave Ackerman of Fort Mills, Ontario and Jim Tjephene of Clarks Grove, Minnesota, have grown southern peas, and Dr. David Davis has managed, for many years, an active breeding program at the University of Minnesota. Examples are Dr. Davis' Minnesota 13 and Minnesota 150 varieties. Southern peas thrive in the middle of a hot, dry summer.