Eating the leaves on my cow peas.

Hey everbody. The other day, a friend came by with a friend of hers from South Africa. He began to point out and explain to me how they cook the leaves of my cow peas. I want to harvest them but I am not sure if it will cause any interferance with the plants production. He's gone and I cann't ask. The young leaves are what I am after right now. Later ,I will boil then dehydrate mature leaves. I will be picking my first mess of peas in a day or so. Do you think I could take the tender leaves? I read somewhere a plant could handle 30 percent leaf loss with no problems and mine have little to no loss. Any advice here?

i love pea shoots, then i read this !

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lathyrism

now i have no idea.

Morgan, that is good to know especially since I am one of those who tends to eat tons of any one thing that I have growing for free!

I did notice that in several places the article mentioned large quantities or overconsumption -- so perhaps if we just graze our pea leaves and make sure that we steam them well it might not be an issue.

Thank you Morgan for the link. I noticed the same as Jeanine. Over consumption of some types are bad news. So... If I trust this guys knowledge, and I'm inclined to, can the plant handle me removing the smaller leaves or will it stop producing peas if I mess with it?

looks like most of the bad stuff is in the seeds, and sprouts. should be fine with the tips of tendrils.

is my favorite green.

Keep a main "fan" shape growing, but hack away at everything else
Think they flower below tips anyway.