Garden Treats

I spent an hour or so this afternoon shelling peas.  We have had a bumper crop of peas this year and while I've always said that I just want "enough peas for fresh eating", I have ended up with considerably more than that this year so first comes the picking, next comes the shelling.



I sat by myself with this generous bin of peas waiting to be shelled.

"This is kinda boring", I thought to myself.

"Really wish I could multi-task while shelling peas but, hmm, my hands are busy"...

"Woops, there goes another one....I guess I'll have to clean up the pea from the floor (ha ha ha, a little nursing humor there)".  Sorry 'bout that.

As many garden related things are wont to do, I got thinking back to the "old days" when I grew up on a farm and we grew our own...everything. 

My sister and I were both allowed to have our own little garden patch within mom's massive garden patches and we could choose to grow whatever interested us that year.  I remember experimenting with flowers a bit with not that much luck although I still have a fondness for nasturtiums - one of the few successful flowers that I grew, along with trusty marigolds.  Carrots were always a staple for this little girl, sometimes planted in creative patterns, like the Olympic rings, perhaps in 1976 when the Olympics were in Montreal. 

But, every year, my sister and I always grew peas.  Peas, peas, peas!!  We grew peas because we knew we could sell peas to Grandma!  We'd plant and weed and pick - and then sell them by the pail full to Grandma.  Back in those days, we'd sell a milk pail of peas for $2.00 a pail. I realize that no one understands the concept of how big a milk pail was....how times have changed.  Grandma L. never argued with our price and willingly paid whatever little sum we'd come up with that we thought was a fair deal.  Big money for a little garden girl.

My cousins could vouch for the tastiness of "Aunty Anne's" garden peas.  They'd come to visit on a summer weekend and would head for the pea patch shortly after their arrival.  Is there anything so good as fresh peas from the garden?  Little did they know that we worked hard to make sure the peas were picked before they arrived if we wanted to be able to freeze some for the winter months!  That is a very fond memory for me.  Now, being a city girl myself,  I get it...I get why Aunty Anne's fresh garden peas were so special.

Peas were serious business for us and sitting alone shelling peas this afternoon brought back the familiar feeling of summers more than 30 years ago (gah, surely I'm not that old!).  We'd pick and pick all morning - the pea plants would still be covered in dew, but "today" was the day to do peas so nothing stopped us.  Soon, the hot summer sun dried the plants and still we labored up and down the rows, picking peas now in the burning heat, filling pail after pail.  Once the pails were filled and father farmer was fed a big lunch, we'd sit outside on the front step, shelling peas.  There was no excuse - no one was too young, too busy, too occupied with something else to escape shelling peas.  Mom, Elaine and I would start the job.  I can hear it in my mind - the sound of the fresh pea pod splitting open and the peas hitting the bottom of the bowl with a "plunk".

Kinda monotonous.

;)

There we sat.  The three of us.  Outside our farm house.   At the end of the road.

No company.  No friends dropping in.  No text messages.  No music playing.

Just the noise of pea pods splitting open and the consequential quiet pea plunk as the bowl began to fill.

And the occasional noise of one of us munching on a pod, just too irresistible of a treat to pass up.  Quite a few peas passed our lips and missed the bowl....I smile.

Sooner or later, mom knew that if she didn't entertain us somehow, the afternoon might turn unpleasant.  Elaine and I were always up for stories from mom about the "olden days".  Now, as a mother of teenagers, I realize that I have my own "olden days" stories but hers seemed so much more interesting.  She told us stores from when she was in College, when she worked at Halden's General Store on Main Street, stories from her days as a nurse's aid and ward clerk in the Battlefords Hospital, stories from when she travelled all over Saskatchewan during the summer, hosting Vacation Bible Schools, sleeping on church floors when no one would host her and her co-worker.  No matter how many stories she came up with, we always needed just one more.  Her life was SO exciting! 

One year, she ran out of interesting stories and decided to make some up.  Gullible daughters that we were (our mother would NEVER lie!) we actually believed her when she strung us along about being a missionary in Africa, walking through the jungles and having her leg bitten off by an alligator.

I thought she was serious.

The fact that she was right there in front of me with two good legs was, apparently, not much of a reality check for me.

She was a good story teller.  And, all of a sudden, the boring job of shelling peas would be finished, for that day anyway.  Smart mother.

Now that I think about some of these jobs that we grew up with and that I have now inherited, I'm glad that there is often a balance struck between hard labor and jobs that need to be done that you have to sit down to do.  A rest is always appreciated.  While I shelled my peas today, I actually figured out that I COULD multitask - and was able to shell peas AND read a book on my iPad. 

Isn't that silly?!!

I think I would have rather had the company of my mom and sister.



So the peas are ready and the beets are ready and we've been eating fresh potatoes and it's All.  So.  Good.  Cucumbers are coming on nicely and that leads me to this amazing pickle recipe that I found on the internet a couple weeks ago.  I love a good dill pickle but have long ago given up the notion of making them from scratch - I'm never happy with the end result.  I tried this recipe and we took a jar to the lake and they were a hit.  So easy.  Everyone is capable of making these pickles.  And they can be made all year long, if you use English cucumbers when fresh cukes are finished.

Ten Minute (Really!!) Dill Pickles:

Take a quart jar and add 1 T salt (I used pickling salt), 1.5 T sugar, 1/4 t black peppercorns (heaping), 1/4 t mustard seed (heaping), 1 T chopped garlic (about 4 cloves), 1/2 cup white vinegar, and "fresh dill to taste" (I did one head of dill and a 3" section of the feathery stuff).

Add sliced cucumbers. (This was about 4 pickling cucumbers each about 4" long. You could also use the English cucumbers from the store (about 1/2-2/3 of a single cucumber), but not the regular larger kind because the skin would be too tough.)

Fill the jar with warm water, screw a lid on, and shake until the sugar and salt have dissolved.  Stick the jar in the fridge for about 24 hours.  Apparently they have a fridge shelf life of about 3 weeks. 

I did find that the garlic really intensified after a few days so use garlic portions at your own discretion.

The next big garden job might be beets....or tomatoes....or making salsa.....

Anyone wanna help?

Comments

  1. I'm missing peas this year! You could share! hehe!

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  2. Thank you Maureen for taking me down memory lane. I too remember shelling peas 'till the cows came home':) Doing these monotonous jobs always go better doing them with others.
    I sure wouldn't mind helping you with the beets, salsa, etc..wouldn't that be fun!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wouldn't I love that too, Betty! Thanks for stopping by and sharing!

      Delete
  3. Thank you Maureen for taking me down memory lane. I too remember shelling peas 'till the cows came home':) Doing these monotonous jobs always go better doing them with others.
    I sure wouldn't mind helping you with the beets, salsa, etc..wouldn't that be fun!!

    ReplyDelete

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