Peas!

Peas!  There's nothing like fresh peas:  English peas, Snow Peas, Sugar snap peas.  They're all so sweet and crunchy!

​🌱  Peas can be eaten fresh or dried.  Traditionally, they were more often eaten dried.

🌱  There's nothing like the taste and texture of a fresh pea, though.

🌱  The simplest way to divide up the pea types are into field peas, grown mostly for animal forage and to dry and garden peas, with their higher sugar content and fresh flavor.

🌱  The most common varieties of fresh peas are:

🌱  English Peas, which have an inedible pod and crunchy, sweet peas.

🌱  Snow peas, which are firm, crisp, flat peas.  They are picked before the peas start to bulge.  they can be eaten raw or lightly cooked.  The pods are edible, but depending on the maturity, they need to have the string along the edge removed.

🌱  Sugar snap peas are a more recent hybrid of the other two.  They have the more bulging round shape of the english pea, but the pod and pea are eaten together.  They are deliciously fresh and crunchy eaten raw, or can be cooked for no longer than two minutes.

🌱  Peas are low on the glycemic index, are a good protein source, have plenty of fiber and are a good source of vitamins and minerals.

🌱  When eaten fresh, they are generally considered a vegetable rather than a legume.

🌱  Peas have a greater medicinal value when eaten raw, but some people have trouble digesting fresh peas.

🌱  Peas help control blood sugar.

🌱  Peas contain lectins which dissolve clumps of red blood cells that may become clots.

🌱  Interestingly, peas contain anti-fertility agents.  In areas of Tibet where there is a high consumption of peas, the fertility rate is reduced by more than 50%.

🌱  When rats were fed a diet of 20% peas, their litter size was reduced and 30% had no offspring at all.

🌱  Something to be aware of if you're trying to conceive, but most of us don't consume peas in that quantity.

🌱  When buying peas, look for fresh green pods.  Look out for any that seem tough or dry.

🌱  The very best way to eat peas is fresh from your garden.  If you have the space, peas are very easy to grow.  If you live in a warm area, you probably should grow them in the spring (or coolest part of the year).

🌱  I'm certainly looking forward to getting peas today, in my CSA box.  Enjoy!