peas are done

We plant peas very early in the spring, just as the truly cold weather ends. First we eat pea shoots: the tops of the greens that taste like peas but are not yet the pods. 

Then we are pea pickers for weeks: locating the tender pea pods amongst the exact same color plants. Easy to miss peas, we work to strip every single pea pod each time we pick so the plant produces more. 

As the days get hotter the plants begin to yellow and the peas are not as tender, the last of the peas are best cooked old school: cream and butter, mashed together is a lovely way to end the pea season. 

This week the majority of the pea plants were pulled. Then fed in entirety to the biggest pigs we have here: they don't mind one bit that parts are a little dry, they eat every bit. Wheelbarrow fills go in their pen, as the pea plants have grown almost to the ceiling of the hoop house. 

Look closely. The pig is in there.