Fine Line

Yesterday afternoon, after much ruminating, I decided to go out and pick the peas.  It had been 2 days since I had checked them.  The last time I checked, there were a few peas ready for picking.  Yesterday, there was a giant mixing bowl full of peas.  I picked all the ones I thought were ready, and some that I thought were not plump enough, because I have noticed that in stir-fry dishes in restaurants, the sugar snap peas are more flat than plump, so I picked some flat ones to taste them.

I discovered 2 things.  First, there is a fine line between ripe and too ripe.  Second, peas ripen in a half a second.  Once that pod is on the vine...don't blink or they will be ripe.

As it turns out, the plump peas are overripe.  The pod is very sweet, but a bit chewy, and the peas have begun to turn bitter.  Not bad, but a bit tart.  There were 2 really big fat ones that I missed picking earlier this week.  The peas were pulpy and sour, and the pod was leathery.  The flatter peas are sweet and moist, and the pod is delicately sweet.  They are perfect for eating raw and for stir-fry or steaming.  If you plan to remove the peas and not eat the pod, then the slightly plumper pods are best.  Picking and tasting is the only way to decide how you like to eat them. 

My own personal preference with the sugar snap peas is to eat the whole thing.  Why grow sugar snaps if you aren't going to eat the pod?  It is just crunchy enough for good texture and deliciously, delicately sweet.  Just grow plain old pole peas if you just want the pea inside.

Every tomato plant in the garden has tomatoes.  They are still very green but they are there.  Since we have a super duper fence around the garden, I am sure they will make it fine until they ripen.  I have googled several recipes for fried green tomatoes.  I need to try that before they ripen.  I have never had one, but I have heard stories about the deliciousness of fried green tomatoes.  So that is my next experiment.  We are going to get lots of tomatoes, so I am going to try several recipes, and maybe try my own version.  I will report the results when I am done.  If anyone has any recipes or ideas, please leave a post and let me know.

Until next time...

Karen