Wednesday, August 3, 2016

Picking peas

A couple years ago, Don built me some beds for peas.



Last summer was so hot and dry -- and we got the peas planted so late -- that nothing grew (peas like cooler weather). But this year Younger Daughter and I got the peas planted in late April.


In late June I trellissed them, giving them some fencing to climb up.



By mid-July, they were beautiful.



So Younger Daughter and I went out to pick. Since we only had the two small beds, we only got two bowls full. (The blueberries will be a separate post.)


I like shelling peas. It's something I can do for a few minutes here, a few minutes there.


I pulled aside any pods that were dry to save as seed.


I also pulled aside some exceptionally beautiful pods for seed as well.


Altogether I ended up with a modest 2.5 lbs. of peas, which I bagged up and froze until such time as I have enough items to can.

Meanwhile, I think (hope!) I have enough time for another planting of peas. So I went out to the pea beds and stripped off the remaining peas I'd missed before, which I later shelled and saved for seed.


Then I pulled up all the vines...


...and planted some more peas.


Around here, it's a chancy thing to plant a second planting of anything, even a cool-loving plant like peas. We'll see what happens.

10 comments:

  1. Hi Patrice,
    I wonder if you or your readers would be so kind as to give an opinion on drip irrigation versus soaker hose. We live in southern California, and have only a couple of raised garden beds, a small rose garden bed, raspberries and blackberries along our fence, and about 10 pots with blueberries and lavender; and that's besides our small lawn. We water by hand now, but it sure is time consuming. Thanks for any opinions. Terry

    ReplyDelete
  2. If you pick your peas earlier they'll be better. Around here(zone 3) people stagger their pea planting and plant some every week or two for fresh eating, but peas do exceptionally well here. I like varieties that don't get big and starchy and gross. If they stay on the vine a little too long they are still edible.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I never felt they were worth the bother, when you can buy frozen peas so cheaply, but they're "home grown!"

    ReplyDelete
  4. I did the exact same thing but with sugar snap peas. I've never planted anything so late (we are 200 miles east of you in Whitefish) but I had the space and the seeds so we'll see! :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Do you like snap peas??

    If you do, plant them instead. You will get quite a bit more eating out of a small space.

    You will have to freeze what you don't eat fresh though, as I have never heard of canned snap peas and don't think they would be very appetizing (but then I don't care for canned peas either, preferring them fresh, dried and reconstituted as pea porridge ropes soup, or frozen).

    ReplyDelete
  6. Sorry for hijacking your post. I was wondering if you know what happened to Granny Miller. Her Facebook page and website went down.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No, I'm sorry but I haven't heard a thing. I hope she's all right!

      - Patrice

      Delete
  7. We're lucky here in North Carolina. We can get in two crops of just about all vegetables. Fruit, of course, is one crop only.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I like pea shoots in salad and in stir fry, especially with a newly opened bud. So I don't have to get peas from my late planting to be happy.

    ReplyDelete
  9. And the geese, ducks, and cows love the vines.

    ReplyDelete