Celia Hart's blog about what's going on in and around her studio.
Art, printmaking, inspirations, gardening, vegetables, hens, landscapes, wild flowers, East Anglia, adventure, travel.

Wednesday 4 July 2007

Peas from purple pods



Last night I picked some of the Purple Podded Peas - the pods were plump and had a beautiful texture like expensive Italian leather. Inside the peas were tightly packed in a neat row, as the pod is split the peas remain on alternate sides of the pod - neat! I cooked the shelled peas with some pasta to go with a tomato and lamb sauce, they had a soft sweet flavour. The young purple pods picked as mange tout may look cool but to be honest they are a tad stringy (not a good attribute for a mange tout), as mature peas these definitely make the grade. I'll pick a few more to cook, but I'll make sure I save lots to dry to plant next year.

7 comments:

  1. These are really beautiful, and it's great to have a good critique of their attributes. Presumably the leaves are the usual green, but what colour are the flowers?

    I have some borlotti beans growing just outside my kitchen window; they've just come into bud, and the flowers are white, which I wasn't expecting - I thought they'd be red, or red and white (the beans themselves are those pale ones streaked with red).

    Joanna
    joannasfood.blogspot.com

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  2. I found my purple podded peas less sweet than Alderman for instance, though they were plenty tasty.

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  3. Hi Joanna, if you click on the label link "Purple Podded Peas" you will see the other blog entries charting the progress of the PPPs - the flowers are very pretty.

    Borlotti beans are great - I love the way the colours on the pods develop. This year I'm growing a climbing bean "Poletschka" (Ukrainian) with little shiny dark indigo beans - not flowering yet; a dwarf bean "Vermont Cranberry" from New England it has cranberry red beans flecked with white and the flowers are creamy-yellow; and a runner bean "Black Salford" scarlet flowers, dark green pods with stunning jet black beans - this is my favourite runner beans and I always save some seed. All from the Heritage Seed Library.

    Celia

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  4. Hello John,
    Apart from the PPPs I usually just grow "Carouby de Mausanne" mange tout (excellent flavour, but hasn't done well this year). This year I also have a mange tout called "Reuzensuiker" which has been excellent. I haven't tried "Alderman" - have heard it's a good one for flavour.

    Celia

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  5. I enjoy gardening vicariously through your blog!
    Charlotte

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  6. Do those ever look good! I would have a hard time using them since they are so beautiful to look at! You do grow a wide variety of peas!

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