Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Snow Peas


3lbs of freshly picked Snow Peas!

My snow peas did well this year. Long cool lead in to summer's hot weather made for great growing conditions for snow peas in my garden. The photo above shows 3 pounds of snow peas, the last harvest for the season which happened a couple of weeks ago. Overall this season, I have harvested over 5 pounds of fresh from the garden snow peas. That's a lot for my small raised bed garden.

Delightfully sweet and crunchy raw as snacks or in salads or sandwiches. I've added them to stir fries and steamed veggies. I've given away several 1/2 pound bags to friends. And I still have a bunch in my fridge. I may blanch and freeze them to use a little at a time in stir fries or soups. I don't want them to spoil and I just can't eat them fast enough!

One of my favorite ways to eat snow peas is in a simple Asian inspired stir fry that I call simply Shrimp & Snow Peas.


Shrimp & Snow Peas

Frozen Shrimp (from Trader Joes) + Fresh Snow Peas + Canned Water Chestnuts

Stir fried in a little olive oil , soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, ginger, black pepper, garlic, lemon, and a pinch of corn starch to thicken the sauce. Eaten over a nice warm bed of steamed white rice makes a very tasty and satisfying dinner. It's good even without the water chestnuts. Just shrimp and snow peas.


© Copyright 2009 Mountain Harvest Basket

8 comments:

CaliforniaGrammy said...

Don't you just love the sweet crunch of snow peas! Beautiful harvest, Jen!

frugalmom said...

Those snow peas look amazing. I love them all nestled in that basket like that. And it sounds like you are adding them to lots of yummy things.

But CMON. The shrimp came from TJ's huh? You had to throw that in there... Your killin me here. Sigh. If only I had a TJ's.....

And I love your header picture. Its very pretty. And makes me think of summer.

Farmer Jen said...

Hi CA Grammy,
Yes, I do love the crunch of snow peas. So much that I let them grow on the vine until the peas are just starting to plump a little bit, and the pods are not completely flat. That makes them more crunchy.

Hi Marcee,
Thanks for the pea praise. Yes, I thought of you when I added the "TJs" notation. I knew you would notice. Maybe TJs will have mail order soon, or perhaps Danni and I can go shopping for you and send you your groceries!

Those boysenberries in my header photo were lovely. They are all gone now.

Laughing Orca Ranch said...

Oh wow. Oh wow! My tummy is growling. I'll be right over. That looks so yummy! I adore snap peas and snow pea,...and any kind of fresh crisp pea pod. I must try to grow these next spring. My neighbor grew some this year and we all gobbled them up so fast.


Lucky you with all those provided from your garden. Is it possible to grow these in the fall?

~Lisa

Farmer Jen said...

Hi Lisa,
I have never tried to grow snow peas in the fall, but I was wondering the same thing. We could try it and see what happens.

In the Spring, the days grow longer and the weather gradually warms. The opposite occurs in the Fall, so I don't know if it would work or not.

If you try it, please let me know your results.

Danni said...

Hey, I have a bag of TJ shrimp in my freezer... :-)
What a yummy, quick and simple recipe! I do like simple, especially in the summer time.
And what's the word on the Thessonaliki tomatoes...any luck? Keeping my fingers crossed for you!

Hardware Bob said...

Well, I totally missed the posting, another prime example of your culinary and gardening expertise.

The Asian dish looks yummy, and you make it look so simple.Even the ingredients sound delicious and exotic.

I have yet to use my gifted snow peas from your bountiful harvest, perhaps tonight or tomorrow I will totally veggie out with some stir fry.

Anyway,add this to your pea-praise.

Farmer Jen said...

Hi Danni,
Lunch yesterday was a green salad with TJs shrimp and sweet cherry tomatoes from our local organic farm store. Of course I also added some of my crunchy snow peas and a few green beans from my garden. I like quick and simple recipes too.

Of the 7 Thessaloniki tomato seeds that you sent me, only one sprouted and grew into a tomato plant. I've been nurturing it along as I really want to try its tomatoes and also save some seeds for you and me. It is doing as well as the other tomato plants in my garden this year. It has one fruit on it so far. I will send you a photo via email soon.

Hi Bob,
Yeah, I was wondering if you read my blog anymore since I hadn't seen a comment from you.

Thanks for the pea praise. It was a good snow pea year. I didn't do anything special or different. It must have been the weather.

Yes, please hurry up and use the snow peas I gave you. They won't last more than a couple more days before going bad. Please use them right away or blanch and freeze them to use in stir fries later. Enjoying them fresh is always best.