PLANT PEAS NOW FOR TASTY PEA SHOOTS

  ​By mid-winter, I long for the colors of spring, so I start my garden planning and organizing while we're still buried under snow and ice, eagerly awaiting my first opportunity to sow.
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  For me, outdoor sowing for the new gardening year begins on the first day of spring. The ceremony of sowing peas is my official "It's spring" ritual. I soak my pea seeds overnight in a cup of tap water to speed sprouting (although, this isn't really necessary). Then, I love taking the round, plump seeds and snuggling them into a blanket of soil and compost. I know that within a couple weeks, the seedlings' bright green foliage will push through the ground, and I can enjoy an early harvest of pea shoots!

Botanical Interests. 19 March 2020, https://www.botanicalinterests.com/product/plant-peas-for-shoots.

​​  Pea shoots are tender and taste sweet and mild like fresh peas. Harvesting a few pea shoots won't harm the vines' growth, but actually encourages more branching, potentially producing more peas for you to harvest later.

​  When plants are a few inches tall, select 2"-4" shoots from the top of the plants and pinch them off using your fingernails or scissors, leaving at least one set of true leaves on the plant (see illustration below).
  Assuming you don't snack on them right in the garden, add them to a salad or use them in a stir fry. They're even a tasty addition to sandwiches, tacos, or as a garnish with other vegetables (such as steamed carrots).
​  Or try this delicious recipe from Botanical Interests: Pea Shoots with Garlic.

  If you love pea shoots as much as I do, you can also sow them indoors in a container at any time of year.

​  In January, after the masses of holiday treats and heavy foods, I get the craving for fresh salads, so I set up an empty and cleaned salad greens box in front of a sunny window, add a couple inches of moist Whitney Farms Organic Potting Mix, and sprinkle pea seeds across the potting mix. 
  Sow thickly, spacing seeds approximately 1" apart. Cover with plastic wrap or if you use an empty salad green box like I do, you can just reuse the lid. Remove the plastic cover once you see sprouting seeds. 

  In just two to four weeks, you will be eating fresh shoots! 
You can even harvest a crop two or three times. I encourage regrowth by misting the plants with a weak solution of Espoma GROW! Liquid Organic Plant Food mixed with tap water in an All Purpose Spray Bottle.

​  ​What are you sowing on the first day of spring?  What's your garden signal that spring has begun?