Sugar Snaps grow only during the spring and sporadically during the winter here. We get too hot to have a long growing season with delicate pea plants, lettuces, broccoli, and carrots. We have been in the 80's this week which means my precious peas won't last much longer, but this week we are enjoying this fantastically crisp and sweet treat in abundance.
We like them barely cooked, either steamed or sautéed with some sesame seeds. Last night, I was home alone and I threw a few into my pasta water at the last second, then added some Parmesan. Of course, when I was picking my supper, I popped a few into my mouth right off the vine. I have caught my children, on several occasions, standing suspiciously at the raised beds containing the pea plants and the carrots. Yet, I can't get upset because I can't think of a more healthy snack.
Sugar snaps, or at least these, claim they don't need staking, but I find that everything does better with a little support. These are growing on pieces of cattle panel braced by some triangular tomato cages and have grown to about four feet tall. Since they aren't touching the ground, the heavy rains haven't harmed the blooms or rotted the peas.
If I could just control the heat, I could have wonderful peas all through the summer. I bet they wouldn't seem so special if I could have them all summer long.
1 comment:
I like the thought of the kids pinching peas while Mom's not looking.
You know, growing up, I was every aware that my dad hated most vegetables and loved the saltiest, greasiest snack foods available. After he passed away someone told me his favorite childhood snack had been rutabaga from his grandma's garden, raw, thinly sliced, and salted. As a boy, he spent summers on her farm and ate out of the garden.
My new theory is that my dad loved vegetables, until his mother and then my mother boiled the life out of them!
My lettuces are lush. They won't bolt for weeks, with any luck, and I'm trying to figure out what kind of warm-weather, short maturation veggies I can put in their place.
Let me know if you ever figure out how to control the climate. I'll simply reverse your formula and extend my growing season!
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