Fresh From the Garden

Due to too much time spent doing destruction, construction and painting of walls, ceilings and trim, my garden this year has gotten a lot less attention than it deserves. The watering gets done...mostly...but the feeding hasn't happened as often as it should (we won't even talk about weeding 'kay?) and the cooler weather has slowed down the ripening of almost everything. I have found the occasional super size zucchini hiding out and looking like a dark green baseball bat. Fortunately those are Grandma L's favorites for making her famous zucchini casserole.

The rest of the zucchini is shared with friends and neighbors and enjoyed, grilled mostly, by Sweetie and me. Tomatoes are still green and hard so it might be awhile before the iconic lettuce, heirloom tomato and bacon sandwich that I wait all year to enjoy.

The sugar snap peas have been happy with the foggy mornings and cooler days...they keep putting out new flowers and cute pea pods.

Some that hid behind tomato leaves, sweet pea leaves or who knows what became large and eventually turned into seed pods for next year. Some of the pods became too tough to eat so I simply split the pod open and harvested the adorable fresh peas. Some were round and beautiful as pearls and others were so tightly packed together in the pod that they were almost square!

I suppose I should have eaten them by themselves to thoroughly enjoy the fresh pea experience, but both batches (so far) where I shelled the peas they have gone into veggie mixtures. The first time they added a nice note to a stir fry. Yesterday I added them to a new batch of the summer soup.

I enjoyed a serving today for lunch and the addition of the peas made it even more enjoyable than the last version.

If things continue on the way they have been we may end up with another harvest of fresh peas and perhaps just steam them and toss in a bit of butter. Mmmm.

Here is some nutritional information on peas:

The following nutrition information is for one serving of peas. That would be about one cup of peas, or 145 grams. This general information is for any variety of raw peas.

Macronutrients:
Water: 114.35 g
Calories: 117
Protein: 7.86 g
Carbohydrates: 20.97 g
Fiber: 7.4 g
Sugars: 8.22 g
Total Fat: 0.58 g
Saturated Fat: 0.103 g
Monounsaturated Fat: 0.0501 g
Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.271 g
Cholesterol: 0 mg

Micronutrients:
Calcium: 36 mg
Iron: 2.13 mg
Magnesium: 48 mg
Phosphorus: 157 mg
Potassium: 354 mg
Sodium: 7 mg
Zinc: 1.80 mg
Vitamin C: 58.0 mg
Thiamin: 0.386 mg
Riboflavin: 0.191 mg
Niacin: 3.030 mg
Pantothenic Acid: 0.151 mg
Vitamin B6: 0.245 mg
Vitamin B12: 0 mcg
Folate: 94 mcg
Vitamin A: 1109 IU
Vitamin E: 0.19 mg
Vitamin K: 36.0 mcg
Phytonutrients:
beta Carotene: 651 mcg
beta Cryptoxanthin: 0 mcg
Lycopene: 0 mcg
Lutein and Zeaxanthin: 3592 mcg

Source of Information:
USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference

Tender Peas and Snappy Pod

Strawberries aren’t the only sweet seasonal food that you can find at the market and farmers markets right now. Cherries and apricots have their short space of springtime ripeness. Sugar snap peas are starting to show up, too.

Why eat sugar snap peas? These crunchy green delights are practically non-fat, have no cholesterol, lots of fiber, are very low in sodium and very high in iron, thiamin, vitamin A & C and high in vitamin B6, manganese, magnesium, pantothenic acid, phosphorus and potassium. Beyond that they taste so good!

Sugar snap peas are easy to grow, too. This spring I grew some for the first time and I chose a variety that doesn’t climb too tall. Unfortunately I gave the seed packet to my sister-in-law so she could grow some, too, so I don’t have the name…something with ‘gray’ in it I think. Peas of all sorts are heavy feeders, so be sure to fertilize them regularly. I use Miracle Grow crystals which I mix into gallon water bottles. Our cool, damp spring also likely helped since most peas prefer cooler weather to hot days. That’s why they have a shorter season, being at their absolute best in the Spring.

Pick the pods once they have started to form peas inside the pod. If you pick them early they are like snow peas and if picked later when they are mature, you can open them up and remove just the peas like English peas. In between is the way that sugar snap peas are usually grown and harvested for market. The pods are snappy crisp but still supple enough to eat raw and the peas inside are still tiny and tender.

These are great eaten raw, out of hand, for a snack, or dipped in something like the roasted garlic bean dip or some ranch dressing. For a nice side dish, lightly steam and add a small amount of butter which can be stirred in to just lightly coat the pea pods. They are also wonderful in stir-frys, great in salads, adding a wonderful crunch and ‘green’ taste, and you can use them in any recipe calling for snow peas if they are still in their very young and tender stage.

There is no recipe in this post because fresh goodies like this need only the lightest of preparations. Last night I served a pint of them, just picked, lightly steamed and buttered. Before I steamed them I removed the stem end and the string along the top of the pea. The flavor of fresh peas, including these wonderful, crunchy sugar snap peas, just says ‘Spring’ to me. Try them while the season is right.