Healthy soil equals a healthy garden. Before you begin to add amendments, it is helpful to know what kind of soil you have. Clay soils need different things from a sandy soil. A basic way to test your soil type by feel. The University of …
Apricots are stone fruits with a velvety smooth skin and low-juice, firm flesh. The name apricot is a name given to several species of fruit from different botanical names (common names are Japanese apricot or Chinese plum, Siberian apricot, marmot plum), but the Prunus armeniaca …
There are three types of edible peas: shelling peas, snow peas, and snap peas. They all have the same sort of shape and are all planted in the same ways, but are very different vegetables. Each have their unique things to love about them.
Shelling peas come by other names: English peas, shelling peas, or simply garden peas. These peas have a pod that is slightly curved, firm, and the part that is eaten is the actual peas inside the shell. The pod very fibrous and discarded after shelling. It takes more work to process them for eating (pick, then shell the peas before using) but they offer excellent nutritional value. Shelling peas are best eaten or prepared the same day they are picked and shelled as the sugars inside of them quickly turn to starch.
Snow peas are thin, the outside pod is edible, and the inside peas are very small. Their crisp nature makes them perfect for stir fries and sauteed dishes, and can be sliced and cut up for recipes. These peas do have one prep before eating and that is to remove the string that is attached to the opening seam, which is hard and tough to chew. Snow peas that are picked very young can avoid this step.
Snap peas offer the best of both worlds of the other two peas: the outside pods are plump and edible, and the inside peas are large and flavorful. Like snow peas, they have a string at the opening seam that needs to be removed before eating, but snap peas do have varieties that are stringless eliminating this chore.
Sugar snap peas, or simply snap peas, are a fairly recent vegetable crop. It was developed in 1952 as a cross between the shell pea and a snow pea. The cross began as a way to improve the pea but resulted in a brand new …
Snow peas are a variety of garden peas with thin walls and very small pea fruit inside. The pods are flat but completely edible, unlike shelling peas which are too fibrous. The stems and leaves of the young plant are edible, too. Like all peas, …
Garden shelling peas are an annual vegetable than grow on a vine. These peas go by peas, shelling peas, English peas, and garden peas. The edible green pod fruit are contained in a slightly curved pod of the same color. Unlike its relatives the snow pea or snap pea, garden peas need to be shelled before eating as the outside pod is too fibrous.
Peas are a cool season vegetable and can handle colder temperatures well. They are usually planted before the last frost of the season for the first crop of the year. Shelling peas can be vining (attaching themselves to a support by the tendrils that extend from the vine) or low-growing, dwarf varieties that don’t need extra support.
Plant peas when the weather is warm enough in your area to be worked, but about 6 weeks before the last frost. They prefer the cooler temperatures, below 70 degrees F. Sow the seeds directly in soil with good drainage. Once planted, do not over water the seeds or keep them waterlogged. As the plant grows and produces the pea pods, regularly pick to encourage growth. Shelling peas can be picked easily from the vine.
Once picked, they should be shelled and cooked quickly (same day, right after picking and shelling preferably) as the sugars in these peas turn to starch after picking. Shelling peas are sweetest when fresh.
Image of English shelling peas by whitneyinchicago via Creative Commons 2.0 license.
Cherries are really easy to preserve by freezing or drying. The question of pitting before or after freezing is a choice you’ll need to make, but I always pit before freezing which makes them super easy for the kids to use in their smoothies. …
Cherries are small, round fruit with a smooth skin. Sweet cherries, Prunus avium, are the fruit most associated with snacking and eating raw, and the sour cherries, Prunus cerasus, are tart, smaller than the sweet, and are often used in preserves. Maraschino cherries are actually light …