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| I just returned from vacation, and discovered that our house-sitter didn't actually harvest any of our shelling peas...so now they're all past ripe. A few of the pods have started to turn tan, but most are still a dull green (but quite over-mature). They're definitely turning starchy, and have a quality a bit like chickpeas.
So...now what? I'm thinking I might be able to cook them into some sort of soup, or dry them for later soup-making. Should I dry them in their current state? Should I leave them on the vines longer, to let them get more mature first? The variety is Dark-Seeded Early Perfection, which I realize is not a "drying" variety, but it's what I've got...the bulk of the harvest is sitting out there on the vines, and I'd hate to lose it entirely. Thanks! [I'd been expecting to return to a bag of harvested peas in the fridge, or to peas that had been eaten by the house-sitter...I didn't expect to find them languishing on the vine, alongside the flowering broccoli plants. Grrr.] |
Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by farmerdill (My Page) on Sun, Jul 1, 12 at 14:00
| You can let them dry on the vines and use them for either seed or soup peas. Most soup peas are yellow varieties rather than green, but green peas will work. |
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| I should have mentioned that the remaining peas are far more than I could possibly need for seed...by a couple of orders of magnitude, probably. I live in the city, and have a small garden, so it takes me years to make it through a seed packet (and when stored in the fridge, the seeds last just fine). So...finding a way to eat these is what I'm looking for. Do I *need* to let them dry on the vines? If so, how dry is dry? If they're not quite dry enough, can I pull up the vines and hang them somewhere? I was hoping to plant another round of peas in the same spot for a Fall crop, and someone I know from my area learned from experimentation that "in the ground no later than July 25th" was the magic timing. |
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- Posted by farmerdill (My Page) on Sun, Jul 1, 12 at 15:09
| Once the pods turn tan they dry very quickly. Of course you could use them as green shell peas. Too starchy for most uses but should be fine in soups. |
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| I love 'em like that, lots of real pea-flavor. Try boiling them for a while, then they are great with anything, and later cold on salads. |
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- Posted by Slimy_Okra 2b (My Page) on Sun, Jul 1, 12 at 15:50
| Mature peas like that are traditionally used in Indian curries and dishes (potato pea samosas, potato and pea curry, paneer and pea curry, etc). |
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| Glad you posted this -- I ended up with a bunch over ripe on the vine, too. I harvested them while most were still green because I wanted to motivate the vines to start producing again. I left them out in the sun to dry, and they did so nicely. Actually, I shelled some and dried them too -- both methods worked. I would think that pulling them and hanging them would work great, like dry beans. Thanks for the cooking suggestions! |
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