Vegetable Confessions

Oh, it has been such a busy week, with jobs and rainstorms and sinus infections!

Butch is like, "I know you are busy but where is my second breakfast?" 

So there's been a lag in blogging, but not for lack of action in the backyard!  Expect some updates.

But first, I'd like to come clean on a few things.  Not everyday things, but things that most gardeners would keep as deep-dark-secret kind of things.

1) I never knew that pea shoots were edible until this week
2) I learned about pea shoots from the CSA that we joined and received our first bag from this week.  I know, I know, what about all the stuff I am growing out back?  Well essentially, I can't grow everything.  I am limited in time, space, and expertise.  I intentionally decided to focus on just a few crops this year that I've had success with in the past.  And also - a CSA is a great chance to try some new things.  Every week is like an episode of Chopped! Money well spent.
3) I do not actually enjoy pea shoots, at least not raw.

I was a little thrown by the pea shoots, but thanks to Google I discovered www.peashoots.com!  Yes, an entire website devoted to pea shoots! I found a recipe for Pea Shoot and Strawberry Salad that sounded delicious (and for which I had all of the ingredients, excepting cucumber).  I also added salt and pepper.

So pretty, right?

Sadly, we did not enjoy it one bit.  It is one of the worst things I have ever made.  We mainly picked out the strawberries.

I'm wondering if perhaps our pea shoots were too mature to be eaten raw.  The pictures on the Pea Shoot website appeared to have much smaller leaves.  The tendrils and stems were very hard to chew.  Dan deemed it "too raw" and I said it was "too much work to eat."  Both were apt descriptions.

Next time, I'll cook the pea shoots.
(but that balsamic-honey-strawberry combo was lovely)