Pea Shoots - Delicious, Nutritious and Easy to Grow

I began experimenting with growing pea shoots a few years ago as a transitional crop to bridge the gap between the last of the winter greens and new spring crops. I buy dwarf gray sugar peas, garnish type, from Johnnys Seeds. A 5 lb. bag costs $17.60. I can sow about 8 flats with 5 lbs. of seeds and sell they for $12.00 per flat. Pretty good ROI.

It took several attempts to work out the kinks in my method. This is how i do it.

• I use standard web trays lined with landscape fabric to keep the soil from running out the bottom. Newspaper would work as well.
• I fill the trays half way with my standard worm casting and granite sand seed starting mix. I sprinkle 2 cups of pea seeds evenly over the surface and press them firmly into the soil. I used to cover them with soil but i found that because the seeds are so close together they would push up large masses of soil which were hard to deal with.
• I water them thoroughly.
• I place them on the table under the grow light and cover the trays with plastic to retain moisture. The grow light provides heat that encourages germination. When the weather is warmer i place them in the hoop house. I check them daily and water when needed to keep the seeds moist.
• They will germinate in about 7- 10 days at which time I remove the plastic.
• They will be ready to harvest in about 3 more weeks when the shoots are 3-4 inches tall. If i cut them off above the first couple of leaves i can sometimes get enough regrowth for another harvest.

Packed with vitamins A^[1], C^[2] and folic acid^[3], Pea Shoots are a delicious, nutritious modern slant on the classic British garden pea. Lyndel Costain, B.Sc.RD, award winning dietitian and author of Super Nutrients Handbook, says, “Pea Shoots are a nutritious leaf with high levels of vitamin C and vitamin A. A 50g bag of these tasty greens offers more than half of the RDA for vitamin C, a quarter of the RDA for vitamin A and significant amounts of folic acid. It is great news that this healthy and simple to prepare British vegetable leaf is readily available to consumers.”
source - peashoots.com

That's it! Easy peasy :)

12º in the Morning

I asked some horticulture friends of mine yesterday if they could remember the last time the temperature dropped to 12º in Atlanta. None of us could but we figured it had to be at least 15 years ago. We are not used to this any more. We are used to being able to have fresh greens growing in the ground all winter long with minimal or no protection. Earlier in December we had some lows in the low 20's. I covered most of the greens with frost cloth. Some were left with out any cover. Both the covered and uncovered plants came through just fine. Just before Christmas the temperature plummeted to 18º. I got lazy and didn't cover anything. I paid the price. The greens took a beating, the broccoli was ruined and the lettuce wiped out.
In the morning it will be around 12-15º. It is not expected to get much above freezing for a couple of days. I learned my lesson. I covered the recovering greens with frost cloth yesterday while the air, and the soil was still relatively warm. Today it will not get over about 35º. My theory is that by covering yesterday i am trapping as much soil warmth as possible to help protect the plants over the next few days. Do i think my efforts will save the greens? I'm doubtful but Monday we will see.
Will we have to start buying greens and other vegetables from the coop or grocery store? Nope. We have carrots growing. They are covered and will be fine. In our cold frame we have been growing mixed asian greens, lettuce, pea shoots and perennial onions in pots.(these i moved into the basement yesterday afternoon where they will remain until this spate of cold passes on). We have vegetables frozen and canned just for such a occasion.
Tomorrow i'll be working in the basement planting seeds for our early spring crops.
BBrrrr!

Sowing Seeds is Satisfying Stuff

I spent all day working at the Funny Farm. It took most of the morning to find all the stuff i needed to sow seeds, get the work station arranged efficiently and develop procedures to get the work done efficiently.

That done, i sowed 5 flats each of stir fry mix and lettuce mix for baby greens. 4 flats of different kinds of lettuce for transplanting and sale. A flat of 36 celery. It has been a long time since i grew celery. I was successful in Virginia so hopefully i'll be successful here as well.

One vegetable i have never mastered growing in Georgia is snap peas. When i've tried in the fall the frost gets them before they produce. In the spring the heat gets them. This past fall i harvested and ate the top growth with the tendrils and flowers.  They were very tasty. They tasted like peas. They are a common vegetable in Asia. This time i seeded peas in some old hanging basket pots we had and put them in the greenhouse. We'll plant a succession of pots so we can have fresh pea shoots until it gets too hot.

Tomorrow i'll do some tilling and planting before it rains on saturday.

Fresh food is coming soon!