Here are some sweets you can eat BEFORE you eat your supper

We have been harvesting swiss chard, kale and lettuce and sweet potatoes and at least one of those items make up a side dish every night at supper.  We like lots of variety in fresh vegetables from the garden and although the bok choy is gone now, the beets, carrots, cabbage and spinach will be ripening soon.  As I looked across the garden, I saw maybe one of my favorite things looking very healthy and blooming - Sugar Snap Peas.

But they are doing more than bloom.  They are producing!  Although I like to pick them and eat them whole right off the trellis, still cool and crisp from the morning chill in the air, I wanted to snap one open to show you the peas inside the pod.

Like peas in a pod

The vines have grown and grown and their tendrils wrap tightly around the fencing that I use as a trellis, the weight of the foliage causing the trellis to lean right into the row of kale.  I had to take some baling twine and thread it through the growth in order to lift it back up.

Leaning on the Everlasting Arms

As I picked a few sweet peas, I spotted another sweet pea across the trellis - my Sweet Pea (wife) picking sugar snap peas.

My sweet pea

The day had warmed into the low 70's and the bees that live in our column by the side door became active and the found the white blossoms of the peas quickly.  If you look below at the 3 o'clock position in the photo, you can spot a honeybee in flight, making a beeline (pardon the pun) for the white blossom.

And the honeybee has found his mark and is busy pollinating...  Although we can't get to the honey that our bees produce, they do serve a very important purpose in our garden.

Tricia picked a nice big bowl of sugar snap peas and there are lots more to come! We'll take these inside and snap the ends off and remove the "strings".

Many of these will get eaten raw and fresh, but the remainder of them will be lightly stir-fried in a cast iron skillet in some butter.  They turn a brilliant green color that are a treat to the eyes, not to mention a treat to the palate.  If the harvest keeps coming, hopefully we'll have enough to blanch and freeze for later.