Peas! Peas! Peas!

Coming to the end of the pea harvest, we can say growing peas was well worth it.  I have often heard that peas are too much fuss for what you get.  That was hardly our experience this season.  We planted the seeds, tied up some string in the fashion of a trellis, then waited an watched as our peas grew into beautifully strong plants with lots of flowers.  Our plants grew so well, producing more than enough for us to enjoy and then some to give away.  Every time lady genevieve and I would walk the grounds we'd make a visit to the garden and pick a few peas to eat on our walk.  Peas straight off the vine, like most produce, taste amazing!  Our metal contraption from the woods worked well enough as a trellis; however, we will likely try a different next season.  In the beginning, we weren't quite sure when it was time to pick the peas, but after tasting them at different stages it seems there is a range of size for picking.  Rule of thumb, not to small but not too big.   The younger the pea pod, the more tender and sweet the taste.

An amazing thing about the garden is how each different vegetable & fruit comes ripe in it's own time.  Just as we're picking the final peas off the vine and the pea season is at it's end, we see the bush beans covered with little white and purple flowers.  The first beans are starting to grow and we'll start picking them by the weekend.  The timing is perfect!  We get to enjoy peas for a time, and then lots of green beans.  It would be great to enjoy everything at one time for variety, however, one at a time allows us to fully enjoy eating each thing though out the summer.  With fruit, the rhubarb kicks the season off at the end of May, then the strawberries come full force in early to mid June.  Currently, our cherry trees are raining cherries.  Lady genevieve enjoyed our first blueberry off the bush today.  There are early raspberries, and then fall ones as well.  From my pick-your-own experience, apricots and blueberries are ripe around the same time in July.  Apples in the fall.  It's amazing how perfectly it all happens.

First pea picking, paired with amazing kale!

A few things to note:

1) We will definitely be growing peas again next season!  Next year we will be sure to sow the seeds a full 6 weeks before the frost date, to allow the pea vines to get a little bigger and increase our harvest.

2)  Will need to design and build or buy a better trellis system, that can be used from year to year.

3) We did not encounter any issues with pests bothering our peas = bonus

FUN FACT~ In early spring, when thinning out your pea plants (3-4 inches apart),  enjoy the seedlings that get pulled for a tasty snack- the Laird says they taste just like peas!

The hardy cold weather crops- Peas & Lettuce

An update from the Garden at Redwoodshire.  We are daily amazed at what a tiny little seed can produce.  You simply plant the seed, water it, and it does what it was created to do.  

The PEAS-  The peas are growing strong and will be ready for picking in a matter of days.  Lady genevieve enjoyed a pea pod straight off the plant- which is exciting since she's going through a bit of a picky eating phase.    One day this past week, we noticed a bunch of white flowers on our pea plants.  Then all of a sudden there were peas!  With such small fruit, it doesn't take long for them to appear and then be ready to pick.  The peas are another seed that can withstand the cold temperatures and be planted as early as 6 weeks before the last frost.  This minor detail we didn't know, so we got a bit of a late start. 

Can you spot the little green peas growing out of the bottom of the white flowers?

THE LETTUCE patch-  We planted 3 different varieties of lettuce:  Tom Thumb (left), Salad greens (right), & mesclun (not pictured).  Lettuce are another plant that can be planted by seed before the last frost.  They actually do best when they are planted early, when the days are cool and the nights are cold.  Lettuce doesn't really like the "hot" hot of summer.  Though this is the first time the Laird has ever grown lettuce himself, his experiences with it as a kid made quite an impression on him- he hates growing lettuce.  But since we were given a nice variety of lettuce seeds, he decided to give it a try.  He decided that he really likes the "Tom Thumb" variety.  Our Mesclun mix was eaten by bugs and then flowered quickly- so we never got to eat of it.  The Salad greens mix grew well too.  We've enjoyed a number of salads from this little patch of lettuce!  If we grow lettuce again next season, Tom Thumb wins a spot in our garden- no bugs and no problems!

Doesn't this look amazingly delicious?  

The BLUEBERRIES-  The Blueberries are netted and growing nice and plump!  So far we have managed to protect our berries form the birds with a temporary Tepee netting system.  In the future, we will have to decide how to protect the 6 plants (possibly more) we have in our patch.  For now, we only have 1 plant old enough to bear fruit so the tepee works for this season.

Today is the longest day of the year- enjoy every minute of it!  Happy longest day of the year!