Snow Peas

Snow Peas are one of my favorite vegetables. It is sweet and crunchy especially when it’s fresh. I eat them while gathering in my garden and I sometimes run out of beans to cook.

Now is the time to plant this succulent vegetables.  It is a little bit cooler and the rains we are having lately will help it grow faster.

The snow pea (Pisum Sativum) is a legume therefore is good for the soil.  Like other legumes, the roots fix nitrogen in the soil and so would help in the health of other plants growing in your garden.  I would plant leafy vegetables like lettuce, bok choy, or gai lan close to the row of pea plants.  Leafy vegetables would benefit in the nitrogen that the peas add to the soil. They would be greener and produce more leaves.

It is easy to grow. I plant the seeds directly into the soil that I prepared.  I would put a trellis or a fence like for the peas tendrils to hold on to. I actually put two rows and in between the rows where I put a fencing material as the trellis.  The plant that grows will hold on to each other as they grow taller. The vines grow taller like that one season I grew them, taller than me actually and very bushy.

Anyway, I just like to plant them because I can use them in my recipes like chop suey and pancit. And did you know that you can also eat pea shoots.  It is a delicacy now and very tasty in salad or stir fry.

The French call the snow peas “mangetout” meaning eat all.  It is because you can eat the edible pods in its entirety, there’s no stringy part on the pod.

It is one of the healthy foods and has lots of potassium and Vitamin A and other vitamins and minerals.