The Nutrition of Green Peas

Our cool, then warm, then dry, then rainy weather caused our pea crop to be later than last year, then they were happy for a while. We picked four good batches of peas, but we wanted to have more so we could freeze some. My plan was to have the peas produce and be finished by the time the tomatoes were growing well and ready for this trellis. As the lower levels of the peas finished producing, and the upper levels started blooming, the tomatoes started filling in the bottom level of the trellis. It was interesting.

Since the peas quit blooming in our warmer weather, we pulled them up and let the tomatoes take over. I think green beans would have been a better follow up crop, like I did last year. I just wanted to try something different and this was a better location for these two crops in my rotation scheme.

Green peas, are another crop that can be planted and harvested fairly early in the season. They will withstand cold temperatures and frost, and prefer cooler to warmer weather. Peas can be canned or frozen, and are great straight off of the vine. I had also hoped to harvest enough this year to can a few, which we have not tried before. We think they are better frozen, but don't want to depend on the freezer if the power is out for any extended length of time.

So, what are the benefits of eating peas? Their nutrients include:

• Protein
• Vitamins A, C & K
• Niacin
• Folate (folic acid, B complex vitamins)
• Choline
  
• Calcium
• Magnesium
• Phosphorus
• Selenium 
• Iron
• Potassium

Some of the health benefits associated with peas are:

• Low in calories; 112 per 1 cup serving; this may not be a desirable trait in a survival situation
• Contain phytosterols, which help lower cholesterol
• Good source of fiber
• Anti-oxidants
• Carbohydrates 21g per 1 cup serving

Even though we didn't get very many peas in our harvest this year, it is an easy, early crop that could add to our diets in the spring before many other crops are producing. I need to figure out how to increase the productivity of this crop for next year. There may come a time when we will be depending on early spring crops in our diets, and it may come sooner than we think. One of the things to consider is the caloric intake needed to continue producing food if everything has to be done by hand. This is one crop that has the benefit of producing early, but do the nutritional benefits make up for the lower caloric content? Is there another early producing crop that would provide equivalent nutritional value, with more energy producing content? Like potatoes? Would this ground be better utilized in growing another crop? Keep in mind that not all crops need to be high in calories. Part of the goal is to produce a well balanced store of food for the year, not just in the spring. The game changer here could be if this first crop was needed to stave off starvation. We're always looking for new food crops. We tried peas this year which tasted great, they just didn't produce enough. Food for thought.

Until next time - Fern

Growin' and Pickin' the Garden

The garden season is well under way here. I picked a bucket full of squash a couple of days ago. Soon we will be into the canning season again. We have canned up one batch of beets, which I will be sharing with you before long. The cucumbers are beginning to bear, the green beans are blooming, and it won't be long until the potatoes are ready to dig. We have been getting, and will probably get rain just about everyday for a while. I just hope there aren't anymore high winds or hail to damage the garden. Here is a tour of what is happening so far.

The green beans are blooming.

I planted two small rows of sunflowers by the green beans.



 





The potatoes are doing well this year, at least on the surface. Some of them are starting to die off, so it won't be long before we are able to start digging them up.

We have canned a batch of beets, and the ones that we left growing are still increasing in size. They will need to be harvested before long.

I think I have figured out why my onions never make bulbs. I plant them too deep. I really hope next year I can grow some real live onions. I wonder if I can grow a fall crop? I have never heard of anyone doing that. It's pretty hot here until about the end of September. I may just have to try that.

 The cucumbers are blooming and have some tiny little cucumbers to show.

The sunflowers are doing great. They are strong, healthy plants.

A storm semi blew over about half of the corn yesterday. I got most of it standing kind of upright again. Around here folks say it needs to be knee high by the 4th of July. Well, it's way past my knees, almost to my shoulder.

The purple hull peas have plenty of competition from the grass and weeds, but they are growing well. They should be blooming before long. I hope to get them some relief sometime soon.

The squash is growing very well. We are having to battle a few squash vine borers, so I put some wood ashes around the base of each plant. Surprisingly, we have seen very few squash bugs this year. Last year I was picking leaves with bug eggs on them everyday and feeding them to the chickens, along with squishing many bugs. This year I have squished about five or six bugs and haven't found any eggs at all. Weird. We have seen quite a few assassin bug nymphs around, and that is good.

The okra didn't germinate or grow well this spring. We had some late frosts and some cool weather, plus a lot of grass and weeds, but the okra is just now starting to grow. It hasn't filled in all of the rows and I'm not sure if I will replant the bare spots or not.

The peas are just about finished. It has gotten to hot for them, so we are waiting to pick the last few peas. I haven't figured out how to get enough peas to freeze a few quarts or can a few jars. Each year so far, we have only had enough peas for about five or six meals. I may not grow any next year and spend the time and effort on something else. It is nice to have something to eat out of the garden early in the spring, though. The tomatoes are doing very well. They are nice strong plants and have started to bloom as they take over the pea trellis.

The carrots are growing, but don't seem to like this end of the garden as well as the other end, where they grew last summer. The peppers seemed to have grown about six inches overnight. They are very happy with the hot weather we have been having. They are starting to bloom.

Overall, the garden is doing well, despite of all of the weed competition. Lately, we have had other priorities. You see, Frank is getting ready to have back surgery, so we have been somewhat otherwise occupied for some time. For instance, this evening we actually drove 30 miles to town to get some Kentucky Fried Chicken. We haven't done that for over five years. And, you know what? It wasn't any good. We talked about it for a while then realized that the chicken probably tastes just like it always has. It's our tastes that have changed.

It reminds me of when we first moved to Alaska. Before our move we were consuming our own meat, milk and eggs, just like now. After we had been gone for about six months we came back to our family doctor for a regular checkup and blood work. A few days later at our appointment, the doctor asked us what we were doing different because our protein levels were low, which had never happened before. The only answer we could come up with was that we had changed to all store bought meat, milk and eggs. It's something to ponder, huh?

2013

The time may come, sooner than we would like, when there are no more rides to town so someone else can cook for us and feed us. There may come a time that what we can grow or raise is all there is. There may come a time that the only medical attention we can get is what we can provide for ourselves. I can only say that I am glad that day is not yet upon us. But I feel it coming a little closer everyday. Don't wait until it is upon us. Get what you need while the gettin' is still good.

Until next time - Fern

Mid-May Garden Tour

Whew! School is out as of yesterday and the last couple of weeks have been a whirlwind of activity. In the meantime, the weeds and grass have been growing happily along with the vegetables we planted. Now it's time to get ahead of them again.

The potatoes had suffered from weed encroachment more than anything else, so they were first on the list this morning. The ground is still pretty moist from the last rain, but the Mantis tiller was able to work the ground pretty well. So now the potatoes are at least partially weeded and have been hilled up again.

 






The beets are doing very well this year. This is only our second year to grow beets, so I'm not real sure why they are doing great. There are several that look like they will be ready to eat before long. About every other evening I pick some beet greens and take them to the chickens and goats. We have also added some small, tender greens to a salad recently.
 

 

The onions are doing their thing, I think. I have yet to grow a good crop of onions, and the verdict is still out on this batch.

 







The sunflowers are coming up thick and look great. I planted seeds we harvested last summer and didn't know how viable they would be, so I planted them pretty thick. Guess what? They are doing great. Now to plant some more of them here and there to increase the harvest. We are intending this entire harvest, minus some seed saving for next year, to be animal feed. It will be quite amazing to see these rows full of big, beautiful sunflowers.

 
The corn looks great and is coming right along. It's also lucky, because a few weeks ago, I worked over the grass and weeds in between the rows.

 









The purple hull peas, or cow peas, are also growing well. They have more competition from the grass and weeds, so they will need attention in the next few days.
 

 





The squash looks great. I am hoping that the late tilling and frosts have impacted the squash bug and squash vine borer population. So far I haven't seen any at all, but I'm not holding my breath. I'm sure they will make an appearance before long.

The okra doesn't like the cool weather we've been having lately, so it's growing, just not very fast. This is also the worst patch of weeds, now that the potatoes have been taken care of. That makes them next on the list for some serious weeding and mulching.

The tomatoes are growing and look very healthy despite the cool weather we've been having. We did have a few very warm, humid days before the last rain and the cool north winds today. I found a volunteer tomato coming up in the okra patch as well. There were Roma tomatoes growing close to this area last year. There are also a few volunteer potatoes.

The snap peas are looking great. They have finally started really growing, blooming and producing. I will need to pick our first batch of peas in a few days.

 













The carrots are growing. It seems they should be farther along, but they look healthy and happy. Another volunteer potato has come up over here as well.

The peppers are still pretty small. I think they have joined the okra in protesting the cool weather. Most of them look healthy, they're just not growing a whole lot.

We had a big handful of potatoes left from last fall that had sprouted and grown these long, spindly sprouts in the house. I was just going to toss them out when I decided to pile them up in the corner of the garden and scoop some dirt on top. Well, now we have this huge potato bush growing there. We've learned another lesson. Don't give up when things don't appear to be doing very well. This is a great lesson that can be applied to many things besides potatoes. Don't ever give up. 

Clematis

 Until next time - Fern
 

Late Frosts & Working In The Garden

At this stage in the garden, I always want everything to be a little farther along, but it's not. We had two very late frosts this year on the nights of April 30th and May 1st. Neither one was a hard frost, but it was cold enough to put frost on the windshield of the car, so we wanted to protect the tender garden plants. As the dusk was falling, I got the last of the plants covered with a layer of hay for protection. This was at the end of a long busy day, so there were no pictures of this project. 

I left the hay over the plants for two nights. Now it's time to uncover everything and see how they fared in the cold weather. I wanted to find a way to do this without a great deal of stooping over, so I decided to try out a new tool that we have had for a while, but I have never used. I thought maybe I could use this three tine cultivator to gently lift the hay off of the plants without damaging them. It worked great and saved my back a lot of bending and stooping.

 I had kind of built a tent of hay over the green beans since they were getting fairly tall. I accidentally bent several of them over too far, but most of them look great. While I was uncovering them I realized that all of this hay I had put out could be moved just to the side of the plants and used for mulch. That wasn't my plan originally, but now using the hay to protect from frost is turning into the added benefit of mulch, which is an unplanned bonus.

 The cow peas, which are purple hulls, were just starting to come up good when the cold weather was forecast. They didn't mind being covered at all and are looking nice and healthy. We planted more than twice the amount we had last year to provide food for us, and to supplement the feed for the goats and the chickens.

 The squash is growing very well and a few of the leaves had already started poking through the hay by the time I got them uncovered.

The okra was just barely breaking through the soil when I covered them. Some of them look pretty pale and others already have two nice green leaves.

  











The tomatoes were about the same. Some looked a little pale, and none of them are really showing signs of growth yet. I know they didn't appreciate the cold weather.

The peppers are sharing the same sentiments as the tomatoes. They're all alive, but are still pretty small.

The peas are finally growing quite a bit, but still haven't started blooming. I'm beginning to wonder if they will bloom at all.
 

The carrots are happy and growing right along. This trellis is home to the peas on one side and the tomatoes on the other. I planted the carrots on the east side so they would get morning sun, but be shaded from the hotter western sun in the afternoon. I also tucked the pepper in to the east of this trellis. I'm not sure how well they will like this location, so we will see.

 











The corn is just beginning to come up and is still quite small. I used my cultivator to get rid of some of the grass coming up between the rows. I will let it get about six inches tall, then mulch between the rows to keep the weeds down. That should take care of it for the rest of the summer.

The cucumbers are growing very well on the east side of this building.

  










The cabbage, broccoli, beets and onions are doing very well. I need to do some more weeding and then they will all get mulched.

The potatoes are growing great again after the foliage was killed by a harder frost a few weeks ago. The grass and weeds are giving them a lot of competition, so they are in need of some attention. Hopefully, I can get to that sometime this week, then I will hill them up again.

There are two spinach plants doing well in the strawberry bed. The others didn't make it. I don't know if they were eaten or just died, but I am glad to have a few plants we will be able to harvest.

Our new food crops are hopefully on the way to producing this year's harvest for us. There are always different challenges each year that give us the opportunity to learn and develop new skills. We know you can never learn too much and will continue learning every day as if our lives depend upon it. Because it does. 

Until next time - Fern