Sugar Snap Peas! I would say that they are #3 on the list of sweetest things in the garden. Sugar cane definitely holds the top spot, followed closely by sugar beets, but sugar snap peas are wonderful. We like to stir fry them with fried rice, but also like them raw. They trellis up nicely on the trellis we use for cucumbers. The added bonus they bring to the table are the beautiful blooms!
They vine up the trellis, clinging to it with tendrils that wrap around and hold on for dear life. The peas load up with pods. You must be judicious in picking them, for if you wait too long, the peas get overripe and become tough. The size in the photo below are perfect for how we harvest them.
I generally make a couple of passes on both sides of the trellis to make sure I get them all. It takes a second look because sometimes some of the pods can be hidden and you'll miss them only to find them a day or two later and have to feed them to the chickens or goats as by that time they'll be too tough for human consumption.
For the ones that I pick, I'll wash them up and then 'string' them, pinching off each end and pulling the string that lines each side of the pea pod. Then they're ready to cook!
The sad thing about sugar snap peas is that they don't tolerate the heat. As soon as the days get into the 80's, they quickly start dying off. That's too bad. No more sugar snap peas until fall. But I'll use their space on the trellis for growing Black-eyed snap beans on. We'll likely be planting those tomorrow!
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