Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Peas Porridge Hot

It's been a while since I've grown peas, and I wasn't sure exactly what to do with them. One of the good things about raising peas is that, if planted well and evenly spaced, no thinning is necessary.

I thought I'd do two rows of them with a fencelike apparatus between them. The problem was that I had no fencing. I figured that I could rig up something that would serve the same purpose. I started with two tall stakes at either end of the rows. I then used some garden twine to build a web between them that any spider would be proud of. I was delighted when my tall pea plants reached their tiny tendrils out to grab hold of my web, er, fencing.

I found that another perk of raising peas was that there was not an overwhelming number of them when the crop was ripe. I didn't have to go with bushels of peas as offerings to my neighbors. Quite to the contrary. There were relatively few pea pods per plant. It got to be a game between my husband and myself. Each day we'd be on the lookout for plump (but not overripe and bitter) peapods. Rather than pick them for later, I found myself just plucking them, opening them, and popping those sweet young peas, much like candy, into my mouth.

Did I have any peas left over with which to cook? Of course not! I ate them all (unless my husband got a few). To let him know that this quick eating of our pea crop was okay, I left telltale evidence (the empty pods) on the ground. At least he knows a rabbit didn't open the pods quite so neatly.

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