Saturday 14 May 2011

Peas Please!

I am impatiently waiting for some pea flowers because the arrival of flowers means the promise of pea pods and I do love fresh peas straight out of the pod.  So does my boyfriend but he won't be able to compete with me to eat the fresh peas this year as he will miss the season - more peas for me!

I have loved eating raw peas out of the pod from childhood when I used to hide in the middle of my father's pea patch feasting on the peas straight out of the pod.  I bet I left a bundle of discarded pods in my wake!

As I am so impatient for peas (and many other crops) I keep a gardening diary.  I've been keeping a gardening diary for 3 years now and I really need them!  They help manage my expectations.  In my diary I record date of sowing, date of germination, date of first flower, date of first fruit and I also record quantity of yields per edible. This year I have started to record the temperature and whether sunny/rainy.  It can all have an impact on the growing season.

In my impatience to see pea flowers yesterday I hit my 2010 diary - pea flowers first sighted on 22nd May... that's just over a week away.  Not long now and I'll be devouring my own pea patch.  I will try and not eat all the pods of the Heritage Seed Library variety or I will be letting them down!

The varieties I am growing this year:  Duchy Originals - Ambassador F1, Heritage Seed Library - Purple Pod http://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/hsl/, Real Seed Early Dwarf Pea Hatif d'Annonay http://www.realseeds.co.uk/peas.html, Mic's Peas (Mic Linz my neighbour's saved seed). All seeds sown 25.03.11

1 comment:

  1. Hi Claire, I keep a diary too but not as carefully as you. I think its a really good idea to record such information.
    Great meeting you at the GO conference on Sunday!

    ReplyDelete