Common garden pea pods and bean pods contain varying amounts of sugar and have long been a base ingredient for wine. It really does not matter whether the peas are snow peas, spring peas, sweet peas, black eyed peas, crowder peas, or whatever, or even if they are pods from beans (string beans, pinto beans, red beans, black beans, kidney beans, navy beans, white beans, broad beans, lima beans, etc.) rather than peas. Green pods make the best wine, but if the pods are just beginning to turn from green to yellow (on their way to brown) but have not yet dried out, they will work.
Here is a basic "pea pod wine" recipe that will work for most pea or bean pods. The recipe has been adjusted to U.S. measurements.
Use fresh young pea pods as soon as possible after they have been picked and shelled. Freeze them if you need more than one shelling session to collect enough. While bringing the water to a boil, thinly peel the oranges and lemons and add the peelings and the pea pods to the water. Hold at a low boil for 30 minutes and remove from heat until cool. Strain the liquor over the sugar, yeast nutrient and tannin and stir well until dissolved. Discard pods and peelings. Add juice from lemons and oranges, stir and add yeast. When ferment is active, transfer to secondary and fit airlock. When fermentation is complete (specific gravity of 0.990 or less), rack into bottles and age at least 6 months before tasting. Makes a light, attractive, German-type wine. [Author's own recipe]
My thanks to Sue Hibberd for the request.
