Peas!

Apologies for the lack of posts this week, all my time seems to have been taken up with ridiculous politics in the Allotment Association which has soured the whole Allotment experience somewhat but I'm firmly backing away from the situation in an effort to control my blood pressure.

On the plus side it's distracted me from the playroom dwarf peas who, upon closer examination yesterday, revealed they've been quietly cropping (that's cropping, the other one is what the cat does in the playroom) and are now festooned with pea pods, although they appear to be a mange tout/snow pea type thing which is a double surprise as I was expecting normal peas. But hey, the children are thrilled nonetheless.

On the allotment I find myself peering anxiously at the seed beds, waiting for seeds to pop up. They seem to be taking ages this year, maybe it's to do with the late spring or maybe I'm just a bit more hyper aware this year than in previous years. I'm finding growing on an allotment scarily public, it just invites direct comparison and competition doesn't it? Maybe it affects the psyche and makes a gardener more combative. Hmmm, just a theory.

Pods go Pop.

We had our first pea harvest from the dwarf peas in the playroom today. Not surprisingly the yield was as tiny as the plants, we're not going to sustain ourselves for long on dwarf peas but they're great fun for the children.

The girls grappled 7 or 8 fat pods from the plants and we guzzled them immediately. I have to say, they were the most amazing peas I've ever tasted but then they were also the freshest, a matter of seconds from plant to mouth. This means the natural sugars were in optimum condition and the sweet taste was incredible. We tried eating the pods too (as recommended by Hugh FW in River Cottage Summer) they tasted great but were a bit fibrous and tough. As you can see, it didn't put Xanthe off trying!

Peas above Sticks

This year I'm trying my hand at growing peas for the first time, however, it turns out peas aren't as simple as I thought. After reading a few allotment keeper type books this weekend I've discovered they've got a reputation as a difficult crop. They're prone to things like pea moth and pea weevil. These beasties lay eggs in the pea pods and the beleaguered gardener is none the wiser til she harvests the peas, pops the pod and is greeted by a host of wiggling maggots instead of fresh green peas. The answer, apparently, is to sow peas either early in spring or late in winter as the pea moth/weevil is only active in mid summer. By happy accident I planted my outdoor crop of petit pois fairly early so fingers crossed.

According to my guru Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall pea shoots are all the rage amongst the glitterati in London. (They're the fine, curly bits you can just about see in the photo) When staking my peas a few days ago I accidentally broke one of the tops off so I took the opportunity to have a munch. I'm a dyed in the wool pea hater (the children love them though) but even I thought it was delicious. I have lots of pea seeds left over so may copy his idea of growing them as a cut and come again salad crop.

On the playroom window sill I also have a dwarf variety of peas growing in a trough, they were photographed only a week ago for The Very First Post!. This morning I was excited to discover they're already festooned with tiny pea pods (see photo) The biggest predator of these little plants have is probably my youngest daughter. Xanthe has been told not to pick them til they're bigger but whether she'll be able to resist temptation remains to be seen.