1st Official Homegrown Meal

So today marks the day that we officially ate a meal that came entirely from our backyard, minus the sesame oil for the stir fry. And I must say it was great. Ok I may be a bit bias, but im not trying to be. It really was delicious. We picked some swiss chard that I never had before and threw in some sugar snap peas, along with a few eggs from the chickens and it was absolutely perfect. The swiss chard was a pleasant surprise. It was like eating Pak Choy and spinach which I both love. We have heard that swiss chard can be bitter but there was no such bitterness present. We picked young to medium leaves and wife was impressed how they maintained there integrity under heat. So with the sugar snap peas and eggs to polish of the stir fry we had a nice little side dish that I will never forget.

Eating Sugar Snap Pea Vines, leaves and Flowers??

Today my wife and I spent the day in Atlanta and like always we love to visit the Dekalb Farmers Market. We needed real vanilla beans to make pannacotta so we drove by and picked up some. We love the farmers market because it's an international farmers market and they literally have so many different fruits and veggies from everywhere, like the infamous Durian fruit that smells like a three day old babies diaper, rotten eggs, smelly feet and the stuff you smell at the bottom of a New York City Garbage Can, But taste like a banana mango custard. I ate one all by myself one time as my wife dry heaved her spleen out on the balcony of our hotel. It was absolutely delicious.

But back to the Sugar Snap pea vines, leaves and flowers; as we walked through the produce aisles we saw our wonderful sugar snap peas and they looked great. We kind of felt good because we were growing them ourselves and felt good about our accomplishment. But something caught my wife's eye. It was the sign that said "Sugar snap pea Vines" and more amazing than that was the price. The Sugar snap peas were going for $1.29 a lb and the Sugar snap pea vines were going for $3.49 a lb. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I picked a few of them up and they were the same thing that I was growing at the house; the vines, leaves and some of the flower buds for $3.49 a lb. I couldn't believe it. But it set me on a mission.

As soon as I got home I did some research on eating the vines and not to my surprise there was very little on eating the vines. One site made it a point that sweet pea vines are poisonous except the ones from the Sugar snap pea. So I clipped some vines and leaves and clipped some basil and I went straight to the skillet with a slice of butter and sauteed those jokers up and I was amazed at the delicate taste they have. They were absolutely delicious and fresh. There is one thing to note; as I clipped the vines I noticed that some of the vines were kind of hard and others were tender. If you are willing to try some Sugar snap pea leaves, flowers and vines, consume all the leaves, flowers and the tender vines. Talk about eating from the rooter to the tooter. I'm sitting on a Gold mine and I didn't even know it.

Growing Sugar Snap Peas

When we planted the snap peas several weeks ago, it was a truly for trial and error. I have tried on another occasion and I was unsuccessful. But today after a hard day work and drinking a few rounds of ta-kill-ya, I noticed that there was this Gi-normouse sugar pea pod that just hang out for every one to see. And to think just a couple of weeks ago I was two seconds away from taking down the sugar snap pea vines and tilling them over into the ground, because they had suffered so much from the hail storm. When we planted the peas we placed aapproximately three seeds per bamboo stick that we have formed into a tee pee. The vines were tough almost a bit dumb at times, they needed so much training and after trying almost everything I had to literally wrap 550 cord around the tepee's in sporadic sections to get the vines to climb. maybe I was the stupid one. But once they caught on to climbing and and recovered from the damage due to the hail, they are starting to reward us with a crop. I can't waait to eat one sugar snap raw. It's going to be awesome!!

Beauty in the midst of Darkness

Today I received a report that almost everyone in my area lost their garden due to the hail that was brought by the tornado's. I was also made aware of that many lost there veggie gardens due to the onslaught of cold weather that sneaked in under the radar. I didn't have to deal with that, I guess the raised beds provided enough warmth to a strong root system that had a chance to establish. I must admit it's a bit disappointing to see the destruction of the garden that took place in one night. However, after conducting a brief inventory of the garden I came across bloom on one of my sugar snap peas. I am so elated. It's as if the plants have been reading my mind and hearing the debate between my wife and I on whether I should tear everything down and start over again. But just as soon as I started to head in that direction I get this beautiful bloom screaming at me and that "even though we may look bad we are still alive and we have a lot of work to do, so for gods sake give us a chance." And you know what I will. They took a really bad beating many vines have withered and leaves have fell off from vines being split in half. But I can sense a determination in the plants to grow. We wont walk out on them.