F or the best flavor, pick your peas at just the right moment.
Don’t pick all your peas at once. Instead, go down the row every two or three days and pluck off only those pods that are at their peak of flavor and succulence.
How often you have to give your peas a once-over depends on the weather, with warmer weather hastening ripening and thus calling for more frequent picking.
Frequent picking also gives you more peas. Once any pods start to mature, the vine receives a signal that its job – that of making seeds – is nearing completion. Only a plant whose seeds do not near maturity keeps working to make new pods – for a while, at least. Eventually, pea vines succumb to summer heat to yield few pods of low quality.
So how do you know when each pod is ready to be picked? It depends on the type of pea, of which there are three: shelling peas, snap peas, and snow peas (also called Chinese or mangetout peas).
Pick shelling peas when the pods are fully plump and a fresh green color. Depending on the variety, the peas within may or may not call for harvest by bulging the pod. Sample a few to determine what the pods look like when the peas are fully fattened but still juicy.
You eat both the pods and the peas of snap peas and snow peas. Because the pods themselves provide much of the gusto, the size of the peas within the pods of either of these types is not critical. Harvest snap peas when the pods are just short of fully plump. When snow peas are ready to harvest, the pods are still flattened, with only the slightest bulge from each pea within.
Use two hands to pick snap or snow peas, grasping the point of attachment between the thumb and forefinger of one hand, then tearing the pod off sideways with the other hand. That sideways tear gets rid of the tough string that sometimes runs along the edge of the pod.
Pods of shelling peas can be harvested faster, two at a time, using both hands. Pick these peas by clasping your thumb and forefinger just where the pod is attached, then pulling the pod away from and off the plant while your other hand holds the vine in place.
Pea quality plummets right after picking, so eat or freeze harvested peas without delay.
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