Pasta with Spring Vegetables

Last weekend we had a bit of a heat wave followed by a good soaking rain and everything in the garden just exploded. Yesterday all these peas appeared, seemingly out of nowhere. These ones in the photo above are an edible-podded pea called Golden of India. They’re quite striking with their pale yellow pods and magenta flowers. We have sugar snaps and a few varieties of shelling peas coming in too.

Asparagus season is on it’s way out around here. It will probably be gone in a week or two. I was feeling like I hadn’t quite had my fill yet, so today I picked up one last bunch to eat with the first of the peas and a few other garden pickings. The asparagus isn’t quite as sweet and tender as it was a month ago, but the peas more than make up for it. They are like candy.

March in the Garden

March in the garden is shaping up to look an awful lot like February in the garden this year. We had a couple of nice 50 degree days two weeks ago, and I really thought I’d be able to plant my peas by now. But winter returned last week and we got another 6 or 8 inches of snow. As of this afternoon there was still an inch or two on the ground. I stood there for a while staring at the snow, as if I could will it to melt away if I stared hard enough.

Late Fall in the Garden

The garlic has been tucked in under a thick blanket of chopped leaves and hay and all is quiet in the garden. These days it’s dark by the time I leave work in the afternoon, so I only get over to the garden on weekends. Not that there would be much for me to do over there anyway, but I do miss my evening visits to the garden.

June in the Garden (Part II)

So what else is happening in the garden this month? Earlier in the week we talked about beans and spinach and chard.

The real star of the garden this month are the Blue Podded soup peas. They have long since outgrown their trellis, and the vines are covered in beautiful deep purple pods. These peas are for drying, not for fresh eating, so as tempting as it is to pick them, I have to wait for the pods to dry out. I only wish the sugar snaps and shell peas were so prolific!