PEAS AND ARTICHOKES

We have a plethora of peas growing in our yard. Two kinds of sugar snap peas, giant Oregon snow peas, English peas, and in the gardens by the house, we have three kinds of sweet peas. I love peas. I could eat them every day, and indeed I am picking at least a basket of peas a day. Peas have a short life span in sunny, hot California. I was worried the peas would not come out this year with our lack of rain. We only received 2.77 inches this season, which is akin to Death Valley. Luckily, the last half inch came in March and the peas took off quickly.

As a child, my mother and I would go directly to the commercial farm in southern New Jersey where they grew peas. They sold them to the grocery stores, but were happy to give us a pound or two in little paper bags. We always had to buy two because I would peel and eat most of the raw peas in one of the bags. These were happy moments sitting on the steps of your house and peeling the peas from the pods. I rarely see English peas sold in the grocery stores. I believe the sugar snap peas took off because people did not want to spend the time getting the little peas out of the pod. Don’t get me wrong. I love sugar snap peas too, but English peas are still my top favorite.

Artichokes were a springtime treat when I was growing up. My grandmother was Italian and stuffed the centers and the leaves of the artichokes with a bread, parmesan cheese, parsley, and minced garlic. She would drizzle olive oil over them and bake them in the oven with water coming up to the bottom leaves and the artichokes covered in foil until the last 15 minutes. I have never been able to replicate this. Maybe she steamed them first, then stuffed them and baked them so the bread on top would get crusty like Thanksgiving stuffing. She never wrote the recipe down or taught me how to do it – especially the part about getting the center choke out all the way down to the heart at the bottom so she could remove those spiny bits covering the heart of the artichoke.

Lastly, the sweet peas that grow here in the early spring do not bloom where I grew up until early summer. We had a beautiful lattice to let them grow up and I especially loved the Old Spice variety with its spicy floral fragrance. I pick bunches of these to bring in the house so my kitty can stick her nose in the middle of the bunch. She loves flowers and I try to bring them inside so she doesn’t get her nose stung by the bees that fill our garden when the sweet peas and borage are blooming. Borage is another beautiful plant with spiked stalks. They have a nice fragrance and the blossoms are a favorite of the bees. You can pick those blossoms and add them to salads with their slight cucumber taste. They do look beautiful just scatter on your salad with their deep blue color. But, I hesitate to pick them because the bees love them so. The stalks will send their little spines into your fingers, so handle them with gloves!

Get outside and enjoy spring and its bounty!