Sugar Snap Peas - mmmm GOOD

Almost every year my peas don't get into the house because I eat them while I'm still in the garden --every morning. This year, in March, I planted a whole bunch of them, so we are all enjoying them now. Today I fixed them a new way:
I used about 2 teas. of olive oil in the skillet added 2 cloves of minced garlic and the peas and sauteed them for about 3 minutes, seasoned with salt , pepper, and a bit of Bay sesoning. They really were good. I"d love to know how some of you fix them --

Mine have never actually made it to the kitchen.I eat em as fast as I pick them.

Oddly enough, I just developed a stir fry using them. BTW, in the mountains of eastern Kentucky they refer to them as "salad peas." I just found that out this past weekend. All ingredients are approximate:

1/2 lb. Sugar Snap or Snow peas.
1 small red onion, diced.
1 Portabello mushroom cap, cup in half and sliced thin.
2-3 garlic cloves, mashed.
1 tbls sesame seeds.
1 tbls olive oil.
2-3 tsp. soy sauce.

In a wok or large skillet, saute the garlic in oil. Add onion and saute about a minute. Add mushroom slices and saute until just tender. Add the snow peas and saute until tender but not soft. Spinkle with soy sauce.

Just before serving sprinkle with sesame seeds.

I'm with you Mel, most of mine don't make it in the house either.

The family eventually starts whining however and I have to save them some. There's usually only enough to have on a salad. I like to blanch them for that incredibly brilliant green and throw them on the salad warm.

YUM
Chris

After our cold cold wet spring I just harvested mine yesterday. Plopped them in a pan, added just enough water to cover the bottom, threw in a double-handful of pearl onions from my Egyptians, and some fresh herbs (sage, thyme, savory and marjoram, I think). Steamed them until they were just tender. Wow! That is what we garden for!

Plain, steamed, with butter and a little salt! I could eat a big ole' bowl full of these by themselves for dinner. I'm so happy ~ just this spring I figured out the timing to grow them down here in Texas, but I'll have to wait 'til fall for them again! Waaaaaaaaaaahhh!!!

Wingnut, at least you can have them for a fall harvest! Look forward! :)

Sniff-sniff ... really? Yeah, fall's not that far away, is it? I can start planting them at the end of August and do it every two weeks to make sure I got them in at the right time and to learn when the best time would be, huh? YAY! Come on fall! (Listen to me ~ just the other day it seems I was saying, "Come on spring!" LOL!)

LOL Wingnut, you sure are a nut (like me!) :P

:-P!!! Life is fun...

Life is what happens while you're making other plans. :-)

:), Brook! I must have a lot of life happen to me then ~ my plans always get changed so I have to make others!

Super Sugar Snaps are my favorites, since they are good in the pod or out. Like others of you, they seldom reach the kitchen, but, rather, end up as a garden snack. I tried a new kind... Super Sugar Lace... they are supposed to have less foliage and more peas, but they don't seem to germinate quite as well. I'll let you know how they do... it's going to be awhile, since the peas are only about 4" tall... and I started them indoors!

My mother used to cook shell peas with new potatoes and pearl onions. She cook them til tender, add butter and milk, and thicken them with a mixture of milk and corn starch. After reading all your recipes and recalling my youthful experiences with peas, I envy your ripe crops... guess I've got pea-ness envy!

My garden peas are finally blossoming, but we are having 90 degree days and I know peas hate that, so I don't know if I'll see peas this year or not.

Weez, creamed peas and new potatoes! To die for! Yum! I've never added onions though. Might have to try that if I get any peas.

Well, if hot weather is bad for peas, I'm sure to have a good crop! It's been cool for most of the spring, and as we move into summer, it's still cool. I'd just like it to get warm enough to grow things.

I've made the creamed peas and potatoes with store potatoes and frozen peas, but it isn't quite the same.

Pea-ness envy! *GIGGLE SNORT!!* Oh, Weez!!

Yes, Wingnut, and I'm afraid I have bean-ness envy, as well. I can't grow green beans here unless I put them in the greenhouse. Back in Indiana, a gardener could depend on several crops per season.

OMG! That's awful, Weez! Just how long (short?) is your frost-free growing season?

It's usually safe to plant by June 1, and first fall frost could happen in September, but generally it's early or mid October. Now you can see why I start things indoors!

No kidding! That's only about 100 frost-free days on a bad year! Ouch! We've got almost twice that!

Yup. That's why we get all misty up here if we get any produce at all! If I get three or four zucchini on a plant, I darn near start blubbering.

Our growing season is about the same as yours, but I think we get warmer temps that make our veggies do a little better. We get temps in the 90's and 100's, but it's short lived usually.

Yes, Joan, that would get things going! Actually, the cool summers can work to our advantage with certain crops that tend to bolt in hot weather. We can keep the same head of lettuce going all summer!

Yeah, and I have a hard time with lettuce and spinach, because by the time the snow melts and I can plant it, there's such a short time left before it gets too hot for it.

Yes, here they are just happy to spend the summer, unless we get a sudden hot spell... which isn't very often!

Joan, have you ever tried starting it indoors? Works real good, and would give you a headstart.

In fact, you can grow lettuce under lights, if you want, and have it all winter.

Weez, I just reread my post and it sounded like I was bragging or rubbing it in at your expense (I wasn't! I'm SO sorry fo the way that came out!), but I was so surprised ~ I realized your growing season was different, but THAT much?! WOW! Home grown lettuce? HEAD lettuce at that? I don't even know what that is! Never get that here in the heat and I sure would love to. But I can sure send you some zuchini. Around here, people keep their car windows rolled up or else you'll come back to three or six bat-sized zuchini in your front seat to go along with the 72 you've already gotten from your own plants. Be glad you do get some and don't have that problem ~ there are only so many things you can make out of zuchini! But we can grow peppers...

Wing, have you tried sowing lettuce in the fall and keeping it going during the brief winter? I do that up here; cover with row cover, and I can start harvesting in February. That way I get lettuce from that crop until about May, when my spring-sown crop starts.

Kathy

No, Kathy, I haven't tried that, but I will this year! Thanks for the info! I'd read about a guy in Vermont growing greens all winter, but he got them going beforehand and used row cover AND a huge portable greenhouse to just hold them ~ they didn't really grow any more, just didn't wilt or freeze. It's nice to know that you do it successfully without the portable greenhouse he uses and that they actually grow somewhat ~ I'll bet down here they would really grow in winter.

We just added onto our garden and hope to get it all done by this fall, so I can try that out. I'm looking for more ways to use the garden in winter. So far, I've figured we can grow cole crops and I'd hoped maybe some snow peas or snap peas under a cover. What else do you grow in winter?

Brook, I didn't realize you could grow lettuce under lights. I think I'll try that. I still have my growlights going because there's some things that are still too little to put out in the heat. Thanks! I'm off to find the lettuce seeds now.

I have a year-round veggie garden; there in Texas I am sure you could too, especially since your winters are much shorter.

I sow my brussels sprouts so that the plants are ready to go into the ground in mid-July (just finishing that now). It takes them about 90 days after transplant to be ready to start harvesting, so that coincides with our first frost (early November). I keep these going all winter; put a row cover on top if needed, but they survive down to 0. Ditto carrots, beets, potatoes, etc. I leave them in the ground and pull them up as needed.

My lettuce gets sown in mid September; by the time frosts come they are ready to be harvested lightly. I don't grow head lettuce, we prefer leaf varieties, so I harvest until the plant is mostly spent. I cover these with row cover when severe winter comes, uncover and harvest when weather permits.

I grow chervil (herb) all winter, and harvest continuously as needed. Same with parsley. One year I grew corn salad, but discontinued; I treat it same as lettuce.

I grow broccoli until a hard freeze kills them, usually mid to late December. Ditto cauliflower and cabbage; non-heading cabbage can be covered and treated like lettuce.

Amazing what all can be grown and harvested all winter, even up here in the north! For people with more severe winters, or who lack the protected area I have (mine is protected on north and south by walls) a wall made of air-permeable fabric (row cover or cotton) can do an amazing amount to increase at least 2 zones (20 degrees). Adding sun is my only difficulty outdoors; our winters are almost all cloudy.

I start planting my spring crops outdoors in early February (I pick a day not too cold), but I spend 2 months preparing the bed, doing a lot to make the soil warmer before planting. All these things mean I am able to plant and harvest almost all year in Ohio. I am sure you could do similar things in ND and TX. I think I will start a new thread in a few days.

Kathy

Yes, Kathy! Please do! I'd love to hear more! I've grown broccoli, brussels sprouts, etc., all winter here, but I'd never thought of trying potatoes with a row cover! Wonderful! The only things Kenny likes more than tomatoes are potatoes, so this is exceptionally good news. I have grown chervil (aka cilantro, right? Different branches of the same tree?) down here and parsley. Carrots I'm just learning about, but figured they were spring or fall crops. Nice to know they'll keep in our short winters.

I'll look for your thread re: this!

I don't think I can do that here Kathy. Our ground freezes solid in the winter and then gets covered with snow. Some years we don't get so much snow, but we can get many many feet of the stupid stuff. LOL!

Joan,

Get a copy of Eliot Coleman's "Four Season Harvest," to learn ways of growing all year even in areas that freeze solid.

Also, on the lettuces under lights, I should have specified leaf varieites only. You can start head varieties, but they won't form up. In other words, they'll act like leaf varities.

I've also experimented with other greens, serving them as baby veggies. Kale, for instance, works great. As do some of the Asian greens. Plant them in bi-weekly successions, and you'll have baby greens all winter.

I think that's the man I've heard about, Brook! Is he from Vermont?