Surprise Peas!

While 3 of my pea growers still won't have a harvest for another week, I received a surprise shipment of peas this morning from a 4th producer. What a great day! We should have plenty in stock for the whole weekend and through to Monday. If rain hits, we may have some gaps in production as pickers can't harvest in a muddy field.

Everything that you wanted to know but were afraid to ask about peas!!

Choosing Peas in the Pod

The variety of pod pea for sale will be changing approximately every 5-7 days throughout the season. As such, the colour, size, texture and overall appearance of the pea will keep changing. Early varieties have shorter pods that mature more quickly in cool weather, while later varieties are bred to withstand the heat of the summer and have longer pods with more peas in them. Different varieties fill out the pod differently so it is often difficult to gauge what the pea will taste like by mere appearance. As the wind moves the plant around in the field, pods are often brushed against the ground, causing small markings. Blossom ends get stuck to the pod leaving dried little pieces of brown flowers on the end. None of this affects the taste of the pea inside. The odd pod that is whitish in appearance, heavily textured, and bursting to the seams full is probably overripe and should be avoided. When you are tasting that one pod as a quality check before filling up your bag (it's okay, we all do it), we would really appreciate your adding that empty shell to your bag of peas to help us keep the store neat....we find empty pea shells in the strangest places at this time of year.

Storing Peas in the Pod

Pod peas must be kept refrigerated. Farmers try to pick their pod peas when the sugars are at the highest and starches are at their lowest. Once the peas are picked, the sugars begin to turn to starches. The easiest way to slow this process down is to refrigerate the peas. Peas kept at 2 degrees Celsius will keep well with minimal sugar loss for up to 4 days. Peas kept at room temperature can convert half of their sugars into starches within 4 hours....hmmmmm...

Using peas in the Pod

Most people just eat peas in the pod fresh. Just press your thumb against the natural seam in the pea to split it open, scoop out and eat the peas that are inside. It's the guild free snack of the summer since a 1 cup serving of peas contains more protein than a whole egg or a tablespoon of peanut butter yet has less than half a gram of fat. It takes a pound of peas in the pod to get that 1 cup of shelled peas.

If you are of the rare variety of people who can actually manage to get enough peas shelled to cook with, without eating them all first...kudos to you.

Gently steam or boil peas for just one minute, they'll turn bright green when they are fully heated up. Remember, when their sugars are this high, you don't really need to be 'cooking' the pea, just heating it up all of the way through.

Another option is to sauté until bright green, then top with fresh dill.

Freezing Peas in the Pod

Hand shelling pod peas to freeze is a long, arduous, and expensive proposition. Pod peas are all hand picked each day, meaning that costs stay high throughout the season. When the pea season is at its peak, my farmer supplies me with big 10 pound bags of shelled peas at a much more reasonable price. How can this be you ask? If farmers are harvesting peas for canning or freezing, they can use a machine which scoops up the whole pea plant and plops it in a bin, when full, the round bin turns end over end, tumbling the plants, breaking open the pea pods and letting the peas inside fall through a metal grate into a hopper. Because of the bruising action of the machine, these peas must be processed within 24 hours of harvest. I'll be letting you know when these bags of shelled peas become available.