Pea Straw

Yesterday, my post was about Knecht Ruprecht, a man in German folklore. In his description, it states:

"Tradition holds that he appears in homes on St. Nicholas day (December 6), and is a man with a long beard, wearing fur or covered in pea-straw."





My mom read this post and asked me what pea straw was. I said I didn't know, so I decided (with her prompting) to find out.

Pea straw is the by-product from growing peas. It's basically the dried vines of pea plants after the peas have been harvested. Today, pea straw is commonly used as garden mulch (it reduces the amount of water loss from the soil) or for animal bedding. This is all very interesting, but what I really want to know is a) how can a man be covered in pea straw and b) how/why did this become part of the folklore? It would be like us saying that santa's elves are covered in hay. Those crazy Germans.

What I learned: Pea straw is simply the dried vines of pea plants.