Peas from my Home Kitchen Garden!
My first harvest of peas each spring is always about this overwhelming. I had taken a quart basket to the garden with me to handle the bounty.
My home kitchen garden has blessed me with my first home-grown peas of 2009. The pea harvest is, perhaps, my favorite of all harvests through a growing season. So, naturally, as the pods emerge I become, perhaps, overly vigilant: I check my vines each morning and again in the evening, looking for the first ones plump with green pearls.
Today I picked the first full pods. Usually, the first harvest is only a small handful that sits a day or two in the fridge until enough others grow plump to make a side dish or a meal. As you can see from the first photo, today was no different: I harvested only a small handful of pods.
My eagerness clouded my judgement. The peas I removed from these pods should have stayed podded for at least another day… and I enjoyed eating them.
Of course, in my excitement for the first harvest, I sometimes choose a few pods that aren’t quite filled out. Despite having been very selective today, it happened again. But fortunately only three of the pods I picked were a tad underdeveloped.
Now that I’d removed them from their plants, they weren’t going to grow fuller… and I can’t abide using such immature peas in my cooking. Betcha can guess what happened to the peas. Sure, and they tasted swell.
I’m glad you posted pictures; I’m growing peas for the first time (well, second, but they didn’t do well last year), and I need to know what they’ll look like when they’re ripe!
Hi I enjoyed reading about your peas, but I’m still confused because, unfortunatley, I have no idea what type, or what is the exact name of these peas. Are they sugar peas, snap peas or what? Can you help me please?? Plus, I have other questions like do they have to be removed from the pod and directly eaten, so on so forth. Any help will be greatly appreciated from anyone. Please write to gbabe99@gmail.com Thanks so very much.
Gloria;
Thank you for visiting. This post wasn’t particularly educational, but I have posted (possibly) more than you really want to know about peas. Three posts on my Your Small Kitchen Garden blog might be helpful:
Small Kitchen Garden Pea Notebook 1
Small Kitchen Garden Pea Notebook 2
Small Kitchen Garden Pea Notebook Video
I grow only Wando peas which are “pod peas.” This means that when the pods are fat, you crack them open, strip out the peas, and eat just the peas (though some people eat the pods, but I find them quite tough by the time the peas are ready inside of them).
Wandos taste grand raw, lightly boiled, or steamed. They are grandest when cooked up in one of my favorite Kitchen Garden dishes: New Potatoes and Peas.
If my blog posts don’t answer all your pea-related questions, please post another comment with specifics and I’ll try to be helpful.