Depends on what kind of peas you have. There are two kinds of peas with edible pods -- snow peas, which are flat and are used in Oriental cooking a lot, and snap peas, which have fat, crunchy, sweet pods and almost no pea (when the peas start to develop they are getting past prime). Then there are the traditional shelling or English pea. As children we sometimes used to chew the pods up and spit them out (just for the flavor), but they are too fibrous to be edible. Feed them to your critters if you have some (in small quantities, or they'll get tummy aches), or put them in the compost pile.
Kathleen