My greatest pleasure on this unbelievably hot day was picking peas.
It’s my first year ever growing peas. I have never before managed to get myself outside and organized early enough to get them in the ground in time. Usually it’s about June before I do the Three Stooges head-slap and say, “I should have planted peas!”
Pea Wando, Growing in Pairs
I planted the peas on March 6. I know this because I have actually started keeping a garden journal, of sorts. I’m not as faithful as I could be and it’s not all that scientific, but I can see that it will come in handy. For example, here it is some 90 plus days after I planted them and they are finally matured to the point where I can pick them. Now, I have four pea varieties, with maturity dates ranging from 60 to 68 days. By any calculation, these peas are LATE.
In the future, I’ll be keeping an eye on this whole maturity date thing so that I won’t make the same mistake I did this year–I used my Texas Tomato Cages as supports for the peas. I figured that they weren’t holding up any tomatoes and that the peas would be finished before the tomatoes needed them, so I pressed them into service.
In the interest of keepin’ it real, I will also show you my un-lovely pea patch:
The Un-Lovely Pea Patch
Yes, those are some Johnny-Jump-Ups nestled in with the peas.
I planted four varieties:
– Pea Burpeeana Early – These peas did not mature all that much earlier. They were also stingy with the actual peas, both on the plant and in the pod, with only about three or four peas per pod. I would not grow these again.
– Pea Sugar Sprint – These are supposed to have tender edible pods. Yes, indeed, the pods are edible, but I’m not so sure about tender. I would look for a different sugar snap next year.
– Pea Wando – This was the most prolofic pea, both in terms of the number of peas on the bush and the number of peas in the pod–at least six and most often eight peas per pod. They also have the habit of growing in pairs, as you can see in the photo. This seems to be what increases the number of peas on the bushes.
– Pea Thomas Laxton – This is an heirloom variety, so it has a place in my heart for that reason. I would say that it performs nearly as well as the Wando peas in terms of peas per pod, but perhaps not quite as abundant on the bush.
Now, here’s the beauty shot:
And guess what? I am the ONLY ONE in our house who likes peas! They are mine. ALL MINE!
And About Social Networking…
I have finally succumbed to the lure of social networking sites. I am currently test driving Twitter, where I am Bumblebee. I am also on Plurk, where I am BumblebeeGarden. I actually prefer Plurk, so far, because the threaded nature of the discussion makes it easier for me to follow. But there is no easy way to find friends there. And Twitter was up and running first, so there are lots of gardeners there who are easy to find. What do you think?
Hi! I'm Robin Ripley author of Wisdom for Home Preservers, published by Taunton Press. I am also co-author of Grocery Gardening. Bumblebee is about my life in rural Maryland, my garden and my love of food, my little dogs and pet chickens. You can follow me on Twitter, Pinterest and Facebook. Thank you for visiting!
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Lovely, lovely peas. I hope you ate some of them raw, right out of the pod, because they are incredibly sweet and like ‘garden candy’. I have grown ‘Wando’ before but ‘Green Arrow’ seems to do better for me, plus it is the variety of peas my Dad grew, so for that very reason, I grow them.
I enjoy Twitter, but am giving Plurk a try. I agree, the threaded conversations on Plurk are nice.
By the way, there is something called Twitterfeed that you can sign up for and it will check your blog periodically and when it finds a new post, it automatically posts a Twitter for you.
We usually harvest our peas when they are a bit smaller than what you would find in a bag of frozen peas. They are much sweeter that way. Yours actually look a bit overmature.
The peas look lovely. You’ve got me thinking I should try some this fall.
I haven’t tried Plurk, yet. I’m not sure I want to both Twitter and Plurk–I would essentially be double posting and I’m not sure what the gain would be.
To find people on Twitter, try out Twubble. It works sort of on the “six degrees of separation” concept–showing friends of friends to help you find people with similar interests.
Robin, Your vegetables look just about perfect and delicious! I don’t exactly know how Tweeter or Plurk work, although they sound fun!
I don’t grow any peas but I have fond memories of peas from our garden when I was growing up. Black-eye peas of course. I would help pick them and then we would sit under the big old shade trees and shell them. That was before we had conditioned air.
Peas are my second favorite veggie of spring, asparagus being first. I was just touring a friends garden this weekend nibbling peas while I got the tour. Yummmm… You writing “mine” reminds me of the movie Finding Nemo when the gulls looked at him and they all started shouting “mine, mine..” tee hee… Good for you. Your garden looks delicious. I think it sounded like a good idea to use the tomato cages as you did. However it looks as though it would be difficult to harvest your peas. This has been such a crazy spring weather-wise. No wonder your peas are confused.
Peas are the one thing in the garden that takes me back to being 5 years old and my mom would set us in front of the pea patch while she weeded. There is nothing more fresh than peas just picked.
I’m kept so busy keeping up with the blogging and reading others that I haven’t checked all that out. All those peas! You’ll have peas coming out your ears!
Brenda
Peas! Oh, how I love peas. Peas and pearl onions are one of my all time favorite side dishes. And I too vote on eating some of them raw! Garden fresh peas, does not get much better than that. Well, with the exception of garden fresh tomatoes 😉
Mmmmmmm. These look delicious. Lucky you, being the lone pea-eater in your household! We grew Sugar Ann this spring, and found them to be nice and tender. Otherwise, you end up having to steam the heck out of ’em before they become tender.
I am definitely doing the Stooges-esque forehead slap… AGAIN. Your peas are so pretty and look delicious that it makes me hope that I remember to plant some for me next spring. Enjoy!
Love peas. They’re a little hard to grow here. You have to put them in really early, and then they get frosted a lot. I ate some steamed ones tonight. Frozen, but almost as good. Haven’t tried Plurk, but reading your comments, I’m off to Twitter Feed and Twubble.~~Dee
Love peas but didn’t get them planted. Will try a late crop this year. Okay, what is the deal with this Twitter and Plurk? How does one find the time and is it really as gratifying as posting and comments? How much time does it take. I hate to be left out but it seems like one more thing…HELP!
Mine look terrible- I planted them beside the onions, and both are drowning! The kids love to eat them raw from the garden, so they will miss them a lot. Oh well, I’ll just have to try again in fall.
About Twitter and Plurk – seriously, that’s its name???? – let me know if you find either or both worthwhile. From what I’ve heard so far, I just don’t get it.
I’m just about sick of peas. Haha. We grew 2 hundred foot rows of sugar snaps out at the farm, and I’ve already picked 2 5-gallon buckets by myself. It’s more than I can keep up with! I blanched and froze those, and now I have 5 gallon freezer bags full of them. And there’s no way I’m sharing after putting in all of that work. 😀
Got an account on Plurk, not so sure I like it though…
I was googling wando peas and found you! What a beautiful site you have!
I’m in the process of planting enough wando peas to can or freeze.
I’m wondering about yield.