Nope, I still hate peas!

[battybird]

In Thailand we were served lettuce leaves in BATTER!!! Pretty tasteless and rather a waste of effort but very pretty!!

Isn't that a Glaswegian salad? [/quote]
only if accompanied by battered mars bars!!!

[frozenthunderbolt]

so's my wife, her homemade sauce is so thick I call it Mint Syrup but its so popular she gets repeat orders and so I have had to go and buy some seeds to create more beds of the stuff.

Any chance we could get a recipe posted over in the 'whats in the pot' section? Mine tastes fine but always has the consistency of sweet and sour mint tea

[Millymollymandy]

I've podded all the rest of the peas and from about 4 foot of peas sown 3cm apart there are about 5 portions. That's not much of a crop from the amount of space taken up.

Also as they vary in size from tiny and barely formed to big and probably past it, how many do you have to sow in order to harvest enough to eat a portion of all the same size peas?

The ones I cooked were exactly the same as peas as I know them since my childhood whether fresh or frozen I don't know, just these horrible bright green things on my plate always accompanying fish and chips! So if they are overcooked (about 3 mins) or past it then all the ones sold in restaurants/frozen are too.

Red I only dislike Brussel sprouts and cooked peas and overcooked marrow a la my grandmother. But I do go off veg that we have too much of i.e. runner beans, courgettes and parsnips. Variety is the spice of life.

[Green Aura]

Brussel sprouts make me Well, actually, they don't get past my lips these days

My daughter informed me there's some sprouts gene - some like or loathe depending on whether you have it or not. I trained with a woman who would regularly have a plate of sprouts for her evening meal followed by the rest cold for lunch the next day. I decided sharing digs with her was never going to be an option

[Millymollymandy]

To be honest Maggie I would rather eat sprouts than marrow the way my grandmother used to serve it! I have never touched marrow since and if I overcook courgette (so easy to do) it makes me want to barf too. But why are sprouts so bitter?

[Odsox]

But why are sprouts so bitter?

They're not, or at least the ones I grow are not.
See, you need to experiment with different varieties and certainly not judge a vegetable by the ones you buy in a supermarket, as they are grown for other reasons than taste.
For sprouts you should try the red variety, I grow Trafalgar which looks good, stands all winter and even when old has no trace of bitterness.
Peas, try Onward or Early Onward, they are the ones I have always grown and taste nothing like frozen ones.

Regarding vegetables you hate MMM, I think you left out white beetroot.

[grahamhobbs]

For me, the brussel sprout Noisette is my favourite for taste, a quick covering of butter or oil (hazelnut?) and then kind of steamed in about 1/4" water until just done (outer leaves start to go transparent), delicious. It won my OH half, who disliked them, over to loving them - or was it just a ploy to get me to do some cooking?
Peas, well I love them all I think, so can't recommend any varieties particularly for taste, although the overwintering types great as they are first thing in Spring, such as Meteor (Douce de Provence) and Onward, I don't think are so good as the wrinkle seeded types, Hurst Greenshaft, Kelevedon wonder, Alderman. But I agree the returns can be dissapointing - especially now the squirrels have started eating not only all our fruit and sweetcorn, but also the broad beans and peas.

[Millymollymandy]

But why are sprouts so bitter?

They're not, or at least the ones I grow are not.
See, you need to experiment with different varieties and certainly not judge a vegetable by the ones you buy in a supermarket, as they are grown for other reasons than taste.
For sprouts you should try the red variety, I grow Trafalgar which looks good, stands all winter and even when old has no trace of bitterness.
Peas, try Onward or Early Onward, they are the ones I have always grown and taste nothing like frozen ones.

Regarding vegetables you hate MMM, I think you left out white beetroot.

Aye up I don't think I've ever eaten a sprout that came from a supermarket, haven't eaten them in maybe 30 years and back then we had greengrocers not supermarkets and people had allotments!

Peas don't think I can get English varieties here. Mine are called Primdor. Anyway I've got loads of seeds left so I don't want to waste another €3 buying another packet.

Yeah, I'd forgotted about the white beetroot! But that's on the dislike list, not the hate list.

But I am not, absolutely not, going to grow Brussel sprouts. Anyway I can't grow any brassica that goes in the ground before mid August because of the flea beetle problem.

[Odsox]

Peas don't think I can get English varieties here.

Lame excuse ... http://www.tandmworldwide.com/france?OC=WWFR

[Millymollymandy]

Well I know I can order from the internet and have used T&M once upon a time when I had a big order, but it's about €3.50 postage so I haven't used them since. I only need a few packets of things each year so I buy from the shops here (or in England if I'm there as more variety) to save money! Anyway as I said I've got loads of seeds left, the OH likes them and peas are peas to me so will continue with the same packet.

By the way the ones I grew to eat the sprouts don't seem to have grown any more since I picked the shoots. I thought they'd be like sweet peas and reshoot.

[Odsox]

I have to say that I buy most of my seeds by post, mainly because I like to try different things.
This year for instance, I forgot to order parthenogenic courgettes and although most seed companies sell at least one variety and some some have three or more, they were none at any of the local garden centres/shops.
The Summer PSB that I'm eating now (V. nice) would be impossible to buy any other way, as would all the "strange" tomato varieties that I grow. I have also just recently started using that well known auction site for seeds as well as getting some direct from America.

My experimental peas are just coming up now, so I will be with you in a week or two.

[Millymollymandy]

I use my seeds up until they don't germinate any more then buy new ones otherwise it'd be rather expensive.

I looked at the pea shoots and it looks like little buds forming, but I have the feeling these are flowers rather than shoots but I'm not sure!

I picked a few more (nice) peas today (dear) - you won't get that unless you remember John Major and Norma on Spitting Image - to see what they are like small - well I did like the few I did small but to eat all of them like that would mean having to grow an enormous amount taking up too much space..... I don't have a lot of room as most of my veg patch is taken up by big things e.g. spuds, sweetcorn and pumpkins/melons!

Also tried the peas forming in the mange tout - not as sweet as real peas but still not bad raw.

Now trying to find places to plant out my sweet peas - I'm having a real pea bonanza this year!

[thesunflowergal]

Going to pick our first ever homegrown peas tonight, I am quite excited about it. We only have about five or six that are ready, but its better than nothing. My girls have never shelled peas, so hopefully they will enjoy that.

Would the chickens eat the pods?

[Odsox]

Would the chickens eat the pods?

No idea, but if you chuck some in their run you will soon find out.

The reason I commented is not to be sarcastic (cos I don't know how ) but to say that I pulled my early pea row up yesterday and picked all the green pods for dinner, also all the brown and gone over pods that I missed. Those I shelled and briefly cooked and gave some to my chicken this morning with half their normal pellets, and they went mad for them ignoring the pellets.
True recycling at it's best.

MMM, I always grow peas in 20 foot rows.
Mainly because I have no pea sticks or anything growing here to cut some, so I bought a 60' roll of heavy duty plastic fencing and cut it into 3, which has now lasted for 10 years and still going strong.
So for the two of us I grow 60 foot double row of peas per year, plus mange touts extra.
Mind you, we quite like peas.

[Millymollymandy]

I have tons of that wire fencing and I reckon it'd be easier to use than silly sticks which I keep having to add to, making it more difficult to actually get in and harvest.

How do you grow them around it - a row of peas on either side?