All hail the peas!It is once again time for the Feast of the First Peas here at May Dreams Gardens. Festivities include eating a few peas right in the garden, admiring the beautiful pea vines, picking peas, and shelling them to display in one of my best bowls.
All hail the peas!
You know what’s ironic about this pea festival?
I don’t really like peas unless they are fresh picked from my garden. I don’t, really. I would never order peas as a side dish in a restaurant, nor would I buy canned or frozen peas. I do tolerate peas in vegetable soup and other dishes where they are mostly just used as a garnishment.
But for a few days every year in June, I like peas, I eat peas, I celebrate peas.
All hail the peas!
Peas are not one of the easiest vegetables to grow, but I’ve learned my pea planting lessons and believe that barring Mother Nature interfering, I will generally have a good pea harvest each year. I just need to remember to plant peas early, choose a variety that does well in my garden, protect the young pea vines from critters and then celebrate the harvest.
All hail the peas!
All this means that I try to plant my peas on or around March 17th, well before the last frost here in my zone 5b garden. I plant the variety ‘Green Arrow’. ‘Green Arrow’ usually gives me eight, nine, even ten or more peas in a pod. The more peas in a pod, the better, because it takes time to shell all those peas.
When the peas are just coming up, I sometimes cover them with row cover until they are big enough to start climbing on the support I give them and withstand a little rabbit nibbling. This year, by the way, I skipped doing that, and the peas were fine. Where are those rabbits?
Oh, did I mention pea vines need support? You can support them with short fencing, or even some twigs that are sturdy enough to hold the vines up.
All hail the peas!
I tell gardeners that if at first you don’t succeed with growing peas, try again the next year and the next year until you figure out what makes peas grow well in your climate. It is well worth the time and effort to taste the sweet goodness of home grown peas while standing in your garden on a beautiful morning. Then you will know why once a year, I like peas.
All hail the peas!
Comments
Frances
Your picture reminds me of the peas in the pod pin that I saw in the artists shop in Chicago. I wish I had bought it. A perfect way to enjoy peas.
We don't cook or freeze any of ours either. All eaten fresh, which is a trick.
I grew peas for the first time last year but afraid they didn't do too well - they were at the very back of the garden and don't think they got enough water.
I try to start my peas early, but for some reason I just haven't been able to get them to start growing until the end of April. Next year I will try the row cover and see if that helps -- unless I have my hoop house!
I see you've gotten some nice rain; we finally got a little last night, thank goodness. I'm tired of dragging that hose all over the place and getting myself soaked in the process:)