No matter what you do in life nor how much you enjoy doing it, there are always those teeny little Murphy's Law irritations that are slightly... well... irritating. I love to garden and for the most part, it's pure joy. Even weeding. But...
I'm growing peas. Sugar snaps this time around, because as much as I love fresh shelled peas, it just takes too much work to get them ready to eat. It takes longer to shell them than it does to cook and eat them! So sugar snaps are just the ticket because you can have your peas and eat the pods too.
The first picking came a couple of weeks ago. We ate some of them raw, as we walked to the house from the garden. If you've never eaten raw peas fresh out of the garden, put that on your bucket list.
So I carefully picked pea pods that were just right - not too fat and not too flat - and after about 15 minutes, I'd picked all of them that were ready. Or so I thought. I started to walk back up to the house and something caught my eye - one more obesely fat pea pod. I snatched it off the vine and once again headed to the house.
The next evening, there were more peas to pick. The hot weather, coupled with supplemental watering had them maturing quickly. I picked some more and thought I'd gotten them all when once again, I found a pod or two that were past their prime. How does that happen?? I had concentrated intently on not missing any.
It happens with green beans, too. I'll pick the plants clean, but the next time I go to pick, there are always a few that are bursting at the seams and you just know they were prime for picking three days before.
It's a camouflage issue and just part of the gardening game, but there is a solution - at least for the beans. Grow purple ones that you can't miss!
'Royal Burgundy'
Are there purple peas, too?
Why yes. Yes, there are...
Purple-podded peas in P. Allen Smith's vegetable garden
at Moss Mountain Farm.