Peas Please Me

Pea ‘Blauwschokkers’ (blue-podded)

Text and photos ©Nancy J. Ondra

Novelty-seeking veggie gardeners have plenty of exciting options to choose from with trendy crops, such as gourmet greens and tomatoes. But peas? Hardly trendy, and hardly a plethora of options to choose from, at least in most catalogs: a few snap peas, a couple of snow peas, and maybe a few varieties of shelling types. I suppose it’s not really necessary for peas to be exciting, appearance-wise; once you experience the flavor of fresh-picked peas straight from (or, even better, right in) the garden, you hardly care what they look like. But if you enjoy trying something different, there are two out-of-the-ordinary varieties worth tracking down.

(more…)

Published in: on March 8, 2008 at 7:54 pm  Comments (7)  
Tags: , , , , ,

Spigarello

Spigarello plants in June

Text and photos ©Nancy J. Ondra

When I read seed-catalog descriptions that tell me a plant “tastes just like [fill in the blank],” I have to wonder, well, why don’t I just grow the original plant, rather than the taste-alike? Sometimes, it seems like the substitute might be the easier route, but we all know how shortcuts often have a way of turning out to be disappointing, to say the least.

If I’d put some effort into getting a good bed of real asparagus going last year, for instance, I’d probably be able to harvest a few stalks this spring, and they’d really be asparagus. Instead, I went for the seemingly simpler route of growing asparagus peas and spent months waiting for hardly a mouthful of pods that weren’t all that asparagus-like anyway.

(more…)

Published in: on March 2, 2008 at 7:55 pm  Comments (5)  
Tags: , ,

Peanuts in Pennsylvania

Peanut 'Early Spanish'

Text and photos ©Nancy J. Ondra

As I was ordering vegetable seeds last year, I ran across a listing for ‘Early Spanish’ peanuts, and I absolutely had to order some. Would I even be able to grow them here? Would they need a lot of pampering? Would I actually get a harvest from them? On our afternoon walk that day, I reported my great find to Mom and rambled on a bit about what I’d read about growing them. When I stopped to take a breath, she calmly replied “You used to love to grow those when you were little.” What? I’m pretty sure I’d remember that, but well, I’ll defer to her on that point. Maybe I did plant them, but did I ever harvest any? She’s not too clear on that, so maybe that’s why I don’t remember the experience. Because with peanuts, the real fun is in the harvesting, not in the growing.

(more…)

Published in: on February 26, 2008 at 8:10 am  Comments (11)  
Tags: ,

Asparagus Peas

Tetragonolobus purpurea or Lotus tetragonolobus (asparagus pea)

Text and photos ©Nancy J. Ondra

I’m always on the hunt for plants that really earn their space in the garden, so when I ran across a listing for asparagus pea (Tetragonolobus purpurea; also known as Lotus tetragonolobus), I knew I had to try it.

(more…)

Published in: on February 8, 2008 at 5:57 am  Comments (7)  
Tags: ,

‘Red Noodle’ Beans

Yardlong bean 'Red Noodle' (Vigna unguiculata)

Text and photos ©Nancy J. Ondra

The topic of arbors and pergolas for January’s Garden Bloggers’ Design Workshop has gotten me thinking about some of the climbers I tried on my new arches last year. I’d decided that the orchard arch ought to have something edible, so when I found ‘Red Noodle’ (also called ‘Chinese Red Noodle’) bean in the Territorial Seed catalog, it seemed like a good choice.

(more…)

Published in: on January 31, 2008 at 1:11 pm  Comments (4)  
Tags: , , ,
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 313 other followers