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sales@jehartley.co.uk 01904 448 556

Peas and Beans

Hartley’s have been growing peas around Knottingley and Tadcaster since 1954 and for good reason. Yorkshire is perfect pea country and with over 20,000 hectares on our doorstep, we can process crops locally in under 150 minutes, clocking up a minimum of food miles.

Hartleys controls and manages the entire pea crop from seed to final pack and produces peas of exceptional quality.

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01904 448 556

Find out more about our ingredients

Growing vining peas for Hartleys has proven to be of great value to our crop rotation, providing a break for cultural control of weeds, soil living insects and plant disease. As well as reducing nitrogen costs for the following crop, it increases the soil's microbial diversity, greatly improving the farms "natural capital".

We very much wish to forge a long term relationship with Hartley's and look to supply an increased area in future years.


The specialists in frozen peas

  • Available in 6 different grades (AA,A,B,C,D,DD) 

  • Packaging available in - 10kg sacks or boxes. Also standard retail pillow packs from 500g up to 2.5kg for retail and food service. 

  • Optically and laser sorted as standard.

  • 90% of orders packed Right First Time (RFT) - this is cost-effective, as it is not re-packed from a bulk container, and safer as the order is not unpacked, which decreases the risk of plastic / cardboard contamination.

We supply peas to all of our partner markets, but our D and DD grade peas are perfect for soups because they maintain their physical properties when exposed the high terperature retort process.

The specialists in petits pois

  • Available in 6 different grades (AA,A,B,C,D,DD)

  • Packaging - 10kg sacks or boxes. Also standard retail pillow packs from 500g up to 2.5kg for retail and food service. 

  • Optically and laser sorted as standard.

  • 90% of orders packed Right First Time (RFT) - this is cost-effective, as it is not re-packed from a bulk container, and safer as the order is not unpacked, which decreases the risk of plastic / cardboard contamination.

Petits pois are a great addition to supermarket premium range Soups and Sauces. The naturally sweet taste also makes them a popular ingredient in Infant Feeding products

The specialists in broad beans

  • Available in 6 different grades (AA,A,B,C,D,DD)

  • A range of sizes - 10kg sacks or boxes. Also standard retail pillow packs from 500g up to 2.5kg for retail and food service. 

  • Camera and laser sorter as standard.

  • 90% of orders packed Right First Time (RFT) - this is cost-effective, as it is not re-packed from a bulk container, and safer as the order is not unpacked, which decreases the risk of plastic / cardboard contamination.

Our baby broad beans taste delicious as part of a Ready Prepared Salad or alongside winter warming stews.

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Hartley’s peas and beans

Hartley’s have 100% control of how are peas are grown and harvested selecting up to 200 fields each year from a pool of 20,000 hectares of land in the vale of York and along the length of the Magnesian limestone belt.

Each year 60 land suppliers provide 2100 hectares of land for growing peas and petits pois.

Paul Saxon, who has over 30 year's experience in growing peas for Hartleys, manages the operation.Paul selects each field and chooses the seed varieties, he decides how each field should be looked after once it is cultivated ready for planting. He also manages the harvest team which involves four ‘pea viners’, one in field trailer and four 10 tonne pea lorries which bring the podded peas into Hartley’s factory at Thorganby as quickly as possible to get a high percentage of the peas from picked to frozen within 150 minutes.

The story from
field to frozen

Land is chosen from the 60 land suppliers before Christmas then a planting programme is designed which will take into account heat units, altitude, varieties.



Contractors plant the peas in sequence from early March until the end of May. If the weather is right between then and harvest the peas should be harvested in the same sequence.



Paul, our pea crop manager, starts to test the peas for maturity using a ‘tenderometer’ machine towards the end of June. When the peas are mature but still at their tenderest and sweetest the pea viners will be sent in to harvest them.



Peas are podded in the field and tipped into 10 tonne trucks which take them to the Hartleys factory. Here the peas are tipped then put through a floatation washer followed by an air cleaning process, pod removing process and finally a second wash and de-stoner.



The peas are blanched, colour sorted, frozen and then laser sorted again for good measure. We have a third brand new optical sorter in line if we need it to ensure we meet our clients specifications.



Once the product is packed it is sent directly into the coldstore where it will be kept at -22 degrees until it is called off by the customer.

Pea grades range from AA which are the tenderest and work well for retail clients, to DD which are firmer and starchier and do well in soups.



At Hartley’s we have clients for each grade and we feel the important thing is to pack the peas without interfering with them which gives our customers the utmost confidence that we haven’t added any contaminants.