Thomas Jefferson's Favorite Vegetable Was A Simple, Classic Choice

Thomas Jefferson, besides writing the Declaration of Independence and serving as the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809, was an avid farmer who was scrupulous in his record keeping of the various fruits and vegetables that were grown there over the years. One of his favorite fruits was the papaw, the largest edible fruit in North America. He liked the fruit enough to grow papaw trees, but he reserved much more growing space for a simple vegetable that was his absolute favorite: English peas.

Jefferson grew 15 different varieties at Monticello — Jefferson's plantation in Charlottesville, Virginia — using enslaved people to tend and harvest the vegetables for him. Among the varieties he had planted was the fast-growing, but unfortunately now extinct, Charlton Hotspur, which he also planted at his Paris vegetable garden when he was Minister to France between 1785 and 1789. At Monticello, he even participated in an annual contest with his neighbors to see who could produce the earliest pea harvest with the winner hosting a dinner party featuring the peas.

It's somewhat surprising that Thomas Jefferson would choose such a simple vegetable as his favorite, given his reputation as a gourmand. He loved good French wine and French cooking, played a part in popularizing waffles, and helped introduce the vanilla bean and macaroni and cheese to America (although in the latter case his enslaved chef James Hemings deserves the real credit).

Still, Jefferson's veggie choice was a smart one. English peas are rich in various vitamins and minerals, like vitamin A and B, potassium, zinc, calcium, and iron, and are relatively easy to grow. They grow on vines during the spring and into the summer. In 1773, Jefferson noted in his records that on May 22, "First patch of peas come to table" (via "Jefferson Himself: The Personal Narrative of a Many-Sided American). Unlike other pea varieties, like snow peas, English peas need to be shelled because the pod is typically too tough to eat. Whether served by themselves with just salt, pepper, and a pat of butter or in a seasonal pot pie, English peas remain a classic vegetable that are Founding Father-approved.