Finally, after weeks and weeks of waiting, I actually have harvestable amounts of sugar snap peas! I germinated my first planting of seeds on May 1…planted painstakingly as little sprouts on May 4 (hey, it was the first thing I planted on my farm so doing things the inefficient way seemed justified ;P). Since this summer has been so cold, it probably took those peas 3-4 weeks longer to produce fruit than would be normal. That said, who knows what normal really is, and their planting location (periphery of the horse corral) isn’t exactly ideal prepared ground. It’s interesting how each different segment of the horse corral (each about 6-8 feet long) is so varied in fertility. By far, the most productive bits are right by the entrance to the horse corral where the pea pods produced are actually 3+ inches long, while in the less fertile segments, the vines themselves look yellow and stunted, and the pea pods are only about an inch long, with maybe 1-3 peas inside.
I harvest about 1.5 to 2 lbs of peas off the first planting every 2 days or so. Not exactly heavy production, but they sure are tasty! This past market, I actually sold 6 scant pints of peas 🙂 I think the last one was left over (which I ate) because no one ever seems to want to take the last of anything, and I wasn’t about to discount it when I knew it could be part of my dinner!
The market table, with 4 scant pints of sugar snap peas on display!
Sugar snap peas only last about 3-5 days in the fridge, so all my harvests between now and next market are destined for my stomach or the freezer. The great thing about multiple plantings, is that as the first planting matures and gets completely harvested, the 2nd and 3rd plantings will come into production. And since it’s such a cold summer so far, I’ll have sugar snap peas to eat much later into the summer than normal.
When I head in to Toronto at the end of the month, I’ll be sure to bring some with me. There’s a certain Peanut expecting a mini-‘Nut who should have a taste of her nickname-sake!