Snap pea harvest

Photo credit: Jessamyn Roll

These were the final harvest of the Amish sugar snap peas (Pisum sativum), which bore pods for over a month after blossoming in scentless white pea flowers right around Memorial Day, and twining all the way up a six-foot chicken wire trellis set up like a volleyball net across the raised bed. The peas never quite made their way into the kitchen, though; the pea stand was an outdoor snack bar for my husband, me, and those of our children that eat vegetables. We gobbled up the young peapods (which were crisp, tender and stringless) for a couple of weeks before catching on to the fact that a sweeter treat would be in store if the pod were left to mature just a bit. (Waiting until the pod begins to bulge ever so slightly gives time for the peas inside the pod to contribute to the flavor with no need to shell them.) My twelve-year-old's special snacking technique: split the pod open at the seam, scrape out the peas and eat them first, followed by the pod. (Works great for Oreos, why not for snap peas?) Even with premature hot weather, the pea plants were only just beginning to slow down before I yanked them out to make room for the expanding soybean plants, which have just started blossoming in tiny lavender flowers. I look forward to planting the snap peas again, this time in double rows, next spring.

Newly blooming: Buddleia davidii 'Black Knight' (butterfly bush); Phlox paniculata 'Franz Schubert'; Datura stramonium (jimsonweed, self-sown); Melampodium paludosum 'Melanie'; Origanum laevigatum 'Herrenhausen' (ornamental oregano).

Comments

[Julana]

I am fascinated to learn that there is such a thing as Amish snap peas. My dad was Amish when he was little. We kind of make fun of Amish adjectives in the supermarkets around here, applied to: potato salad, cheese, noodles. We're not always sure what they mean.
So I am wondering how Amish snap peas are different from other snap peas.

[Chan S.]

What I've read is that these are a snap pea heirloom variety that was grown by the Amish way before modern-day snap peas were introduced. I know what you mean about "Amish" as a marketing ploy, though...saw a TV show on the home and garden channel the other day with a couple househunting for a new luxury home in Florida--the realtor made a big deal about pointing out that the kitchen cabinets in the house they were touring were "made by the Amish". (Right next to the granite countertops.)

[Julana]

That makes sense. When I have "world enough and time," I would like to grow heirloom plants. Maybe get some seed from the Seedsavers Exchange.

[Chan S.]

Julana, Seedsavers Exchange is great--I get at least one-third of my vegetable seeds (and some heirloom ornamentals) from them. Try them out!

[Randa]

I LOVE this photograph!

[Chan S.]

Thank you, Randa (and the photographer, Jessamyn, appreciates your kind compliment too!).