A newbie asks: is there a pea grower in the house?

Goal: lots of shelling peas and snap peas to eat and freeze

Climate: lots & lots of hot and dry after winter is gone, spring lasts 2 weeks

Last frost date: May 15th

Seed catalog terms not understood:
"early spring as soon as the soil can be worked" ?with how much determination?
"unitil the soil begins to warm" ?how warm - how deep?
do these mean you can plant before it quits freezing at night?

Varities: suggestions, please, for both kinds. what about Eclipse?

How many plants? would like to freeze about 20 1lb bags or more its the only vegie all co-habitants enjoy

Whew thats a lot of questions.

It would appear that you are talking about English peas (Pisum Sativum). They don't like hot and dry at all. Cool and damp like England is their preference. I can grow them in Georgia, winter to early spring. I plant the smooth seeded cultivars like Willet Wonder and Early Alaska in December. Wrinkled seeded cultivars around the first of February. Have to Use early maturing cultivars like Dakota, Early Bird etc. I plant about an inch deep.
You can plant them anytime after the ground thaws and is dry enough. You do not want to work in mud.
Only snap pea that has worked well for me is the original Snap pea.

If you want to freeze 20 lbs of shelling peas, a minimum of one lb seed.

I am a in Zone 5a and I find St. Patrick's day is a good time to plant peas. You could try a little earlier since you are 5b. I hope you have more land than I do ( or better conditions). I find English peas to be very low in yield. Snow peas on the other hand love it here. They must be more heat and neglect tolerant than English peas.

OK thanks Farmerdill thats the kind of info I've been looking for. I may need to scale back on my wishing for a year or so. I don't have the space to plant that many peas. But I didn't know that till now.
Mud around here is not much of an issue. Even if it rains well, an hour or two afterwards the dirt roads are solid to drive on and I can walk across the back yard with out picking much up on my shoes. Not like where I grew up, were the red clay took weeks to dry out and you could sink to your knees in places. So I am still wondering about how the above phrases translate to here. The ground does usually freeze rock solid during Jan. and Feb. but limbers up long before the last frost date. So how warm does it need to get to be considerd workable or warmed. Figure I'll need to use plastic and/or row covers but am really vague on what cool weather crops (like peas, broccoli, and cauliflower) are looking for. I have a meat thermometer that I can use to check the soil just don't know how deep to stick it or what range to seek.
And thanks tons for all the advice on what must be really basic questions to anyone who has done this stuff more than once, I really appreciate the help.

Thanks Paj

For English peas and other sow as soon as the ground can be worked vegetables, don't sweat the temps. If the ground is not frozen it is warm enough. If you can't make mudballs it is dry enough.

In zone 4 I put the seeds in as soon as the ground is not soggy...that can vary depending on snow cover in any given year, but end of March early april works well. You could plant your whole area in peas, and rip them out after they yield, then reuse the space for any other garden veggies.