PEA SHOOTS

It has been a month since I planted the peas and now I've begun to harvest the shoots. The seed was purchased from Evergreen Oriental Seed Company for $27.00 a lb. and is called Dou Miao or Muy Caro thought Steve when I told him how much I'd paid for it. I am new to this and thought I should buy the seed that explictly said "Olivia, this is the seed for growing the pea shoots".
Later my web search told me you can also use Oregon sugar pod II and Oregon giant, all disease-resistant bush snow peas developed at OSU or Dwarf Grey Sugar Peas. Also suitable is Cascadia, a disease resistant variety of snap pea also developed at OSU. They can be purchased for around only $8.00/lb. Snow peas are the flat edible peas and snap peas are the plump edible peas. I planted the seed in two long rows (Steve would know how many linear feet the rows are).

Last week my pea shoots looked to be about 6 inches tall, tall enough thought the internet; so I picked some. The stir-fry I made tasted a bit like fried compost. Different web information said pick only the end shoots having 3 or 4 leaves. On Saturday Devin and I crawled down the rows on our hands and knees and picked 6 small cups of pea shoots, three-quarters of the way down the row (Steve would know how many linear knees we had travelled) and after about 1 hour, we were both done! I immediately put the peas into the refrigerator of my EuroVan and later soaked and spun them dry.

At the farmer's market on Sunday I was unsure of my shoots. I gave a bag to Grace to munch on when she came by. I sold a bag to the amazing chef, Claude Mann for $2.00 instead of $3.00. Later that evening we were fiddleing around at the farm when Steve noticed his farmer's market chicken was warming up nicely on the front seat of his truck. We decided that was a message from someone much smarter than us, to go home. As I walked in the door I put it in a pot, poured a beer over it, threw in some leeks and fennel and turned on the heat. The phone rang, the cafe was slammed and we needed to go back to the Farmer and the Cook. Oh... how I wanted to stay home. We returned to the house at 8 pm and sat down to a perfectly cooked chicken and a simple pea shoot and kumquat salad. Today Liz and I planted 20 square feet of peas.

PEA SHOOT AND KUMQUAT SALAD
pea shoots, 3 cups
kumquats, 4 sliced thinly
shallot, 1 small, minced
vinegar, 1 Tbls
olive oil, 2 Tbls
salt and freshly ground pepper

GOLDEN BEET & WALNUT SALAD

you will need: 1 saucepan, 2 small fry pans, colander, garlic press, measuring cups and spoons, cheese grater

gold beets, 4 to 5 medium
bay leaf
olive oil, 2 Tbls
leeks, 3-4
garlic cloves, 3
parsley, 1/4 cup, chopped
a pinch of fennel
sea salt
walnuts, 3/4 cup
a large pinch of dried herbs..thyme or marjoram
olive oil, 1/4 cup
marmalade, 2 Tbls
gruyere cheese, 3 oz

1. Boil the beets in a saucepan covered with salted water, with a bay leaf, until done. This will take anywhere between 20 - 35 minutes
2. Cut the leeks into rings, rinse in a colander to remove sand.
3. Press the garlic.
4. Saute the leeks, garlic and fennel in the oil until soft and lightly browned. Salt. Add the parsley at the very end.
5. In another pan saute the walnuts until browned adding the dried herbs at the end.
6. Cool the beets enought to handle and peel and slice them.
7. Combine the beets, sauted leeks and walnuts and toss with olive oil and citrus marmalade
8. Arrange on a platter of mixed greens.
9. Top with grated gruyere cheese