they've sprouted, maybe we'll have some
pods before the frosts. i'm hoping we
have late frosts and they will do well.
if anything they will be a cover crop.
we've really enjoyed the peas this year
and only regret we didn't plant more and
years ago.

this garden is about 1.5m x 1.5m, raised
bed and almost all clay (a little sand was
added to it many years ago when it was
set up as a perennial garden). it was used
to grow green peppers the last two years
(both years produced well). this year it
had peas and mixed leaf lettuces. it did
ok. the lettuces eventually bolted and i
had to get them turned under.

which was a good chance to examine the
soil to see how it was changing from the
plant roots, the few holes where i'd put
worms a few months ago and the light mulch
of shredded paper i'd put on top to keep
the lettuces from getting dirt splashed
on them.

there was more evidence of fungal hyphae
along the fractures of the clay as it
crumbled. most of this was likely fed from
the decaying shredded paper. the places
where i'd put worms or where there were
decayed roots from the peas or lettuces
were more easily noticeable. no worms
were found. probably too hot and not
enough organic materials in there and
they didn't have an easy way to get down
deeper either.

i dug out four trenches down about 30cm
and put down the bolted lettuces and
whatever else on top that was organic and
then on top of that put several kilos of
worms, chopped up organic materials and
worm poo. then buried them. i'm hoping
they'll do ok this time. one trench i
made deeper in the middle to give them
a way to work down if it gets hot again.
good luck little buddies. gotta make
sure to get some green manure on there
in a week and a half. then i planted
plenty of peas on top.

this garden is right next to another
garden of the same shape, height and
soil and that has been treated a little
differently to start with and will be
examined later this fall after the volunteer
squash plants are done.

other peas are in progress, but they
are not pod peas, instead they are the
round smooth kind you find in split
pea soup. a small patch to increase
the seed stock for next year. i like
how they grow, they are quite cute with
their many tendrils. i'm not sure they
would be good fresh or not, i'll try
a few when they plump up a little more.

the fun continues...


songbird

songbird wrote:

they've sprouted, maybe we'll have some
pods before the frosts. i'm hoping we
have late frosts and they will do well.
if anything they will be a cover crop.
we've really enjoyed the peas this year
and only regret we didn't plant more and
years ago.

ok, i can't find the exact date planted
but i think these sprouted after 4 days.
that makes the planting date around Aug
12.

today i see flowers, so i may get pods
before the frosts come.

just good to know it takes about 25 days
from planting in the summer in heavy soil
with full sun. watered often enough to
keep the soil moist.

from flower to pod not sure how many
days, but it seems to be only a few.


songbird

songbird wrote:
songbird wrote:

they've sprouted, maybe we'll have some
pods before the frosts. i'm hoping we
have late frosts and they will do well.
if anything they will be a cover crop.
we've really enjoyed the peas this year
and only regret we didn't plant more and
years ago.

ok, i can't find the exact date planted
but i think these sprouted after 4 days.
that makes the planting date around Aug
12.

today i see flowers, so i may get pods
before the frosts come.

just good to know it takes about 25 days
from planting in the summer in heavy soil
with full sun. watered often enough to
keep the soil moist.

from flower to pod not sure how many
days, but it seems to be only a few.


songbird

I had "Peas with cream sauce" with the fresh green peas from my garden
today.

http://alturl.com/9nt82

--
Nad

Derald wrote:
songbird wrote:

ok, i can't find the exact date planted
but i think these sprouted after 4 days.
that makes the planting date around Aug
12.

Coincidentally, I noticed the Little Marvel peas planted on 9/3 peeking
through this morning, in the rain. Germination is not as uniform as I had hoped
-- Of the 176 (doesn't everybody count'em?) planted, it looks as if only about a
third are up this afternoon -- but better than feared due to an overabundance of
rain. Why does it have to come down all at the same time?

old seed? mine were all planted from freshly
harvested and dried seeds. almost every one came
up within a day of each other. we had sunshine
and i watered them each day enough to keep them
moist (but not too soggy). now i am watering them
about every other day. looking good. first time
i'm doing a full solo pea patch. they will be
falling all over each other shortly and supporting
each other too i hope. we'll see how it goes.

as for rains, i know what you mean, we didn't
have much rain here for almost two months and then
8-10 inches within a few weeks. now it has spaced
out and moderated.


The next day or two
will tell the tale on whether I have to fill in. As long as the tropical
disturbances persist in the Gulf of Mexico, we can expect quite a bit of rain
down here in the "sunshine state". I can't believe I've been here sixteen years
and still have no way to store useful quantities of rainwater.

if i had a two story house it would be a great
thing to capture the water off the eaves up high in
a cistern and then have that water plus the added
water pressure from the height to do fun things like
small fountains or even something i am calling a
moss table (the design is in my head ). in
addition to the use of the water for the gardens
of course.


On 9/4, already had to replant some Delinel snap beans planted on 8/27
because the rainfall caused them to rot in the ground and only about 1/4 of them
sprouted. Oh, well; I guess it beats trying to garden in a desert, although, I'm
sure there are those who're successful at that.

i would not like to garden in the arid southwest.
that would be tough sledding.


songbird

Derald wrote:
Nad wrote:

I had "Peas with cream sauce" with the fresh green peas from my garden
today.

Yum. One of my favorite breakfasts is peas in the garden straight from the
vine and a fresh Samuel Adams beer; yummy. I'm still some weeks away from that,
though, because my first fall peas just began sprouting today.

most of the harvest here too does not
get far from the patch. we barely had
enough this summer for two or three meals
because we were both snacking as we'd
walk by.

still speaking of peas i was not at
all disappointed by the sample of the
smooth round green peas i had the other
day fresh off the plant. true the pods
were not as tender and tasty, but the
peas were good. from my reading i was
lead to believe that they would not
taste as good. i'm building up my
seed source for next year so i'm trying
not to raid these quite so much.


songbird

Derald wrote:
songbird wrote:

true the pods
were not as tender and tasty, but the
peas were good. from my reading i was
lead to believe that they would not
taste as good.

Do they have a varietal name that you know of? I've tried other peas that
are promoted as being more heat tolerant than my "regular" Little Marvel, which
would be a boon, but none of them has the combination of sweetness and flavor
that suits DW&me. Unfortunately, the LMs neither dry nor freeze well.

i'm not sure what you mean by saying that
LMs don't dry well? i pulled about a pound of
dry LMs out of the two patches i grew. they
seemed fine and sprouted well. i have not
cooked with them and perhaps that is what you
mean? that they aren't good soup or porridge
peas?

the peas above were smooth round peas in a
mixed bag of soup beans you would get at the
store. so no variety name given for these.

they didn't croak in the hot weather we
had (90s for weeks on end) and they didn't
get nearly enough water. i liked their
upright habit and the many tendrils they
put out so they've supported each other.
i'm sure this is something they've been
bred for as a field crop. i planted them
in a small clump with about a 6 inch spacing.

a cheap experiment at around $1/lb. about
14 kinds of beans to try. they've been a good
cover crop, planted late, the full evaluation
comes after the hard frost and dry bean harvest.
i'll get the scale out.


songbird

songbird wrote:

....
the fun continues...

the lack of a hard frost has
meant actual pea pods have made it
to harvest. they are 2-3ft tall
and flowering up a storm. about
37 days from pea to edible pod.

the low temperatures we had a
few nights last week took out the
squash and the tops of the green
pepper plants. there are still
green peppers developing though
so no reason to give up yet there.

tomatoes still producing a few
here or there.

much picking of dry beans lately.
6-8lbs of pinto beans already and
several lbs of the many other beans
too. much more to come as they
ripen/dry.

strawberries flowering again.


songbird

Derald wrote:
....
Warning: I'm listening to very old shitkicker music performed by George
Jones and drinking whisky.

not something i would ever choose to mix.
i'll leave that to the pros...


In truth, I do not envy you folks who write of
October frosts.

i'm hoping things will hold off for a bit
yet. i need a few more days to finish up the
staining and then a few other days to get
some other things done outside.


The Little Marvel peas that I planted earlier this month are
thriving. when the little peas babies are a few inches taller, pla jn to plant
some old timey mustard greens under them.

glad to hear things are going well.
have you done the mustard greens under
them before?


Will plant more peas on 9/29. This
time of year, I plant them at about three week intervals. The irony is that the
peas are most frost sensitive when they're in full bloom and, of course, that'll
be about the time we have freezing temperatures donw here. Tohse can occur
anytime between about thanksgiving and February: One never knows. Oh, my, typing
this is far too much work.

haha, well i hope you slept well after all
that?

i finished the first pick through of the
one pinto bean patch just in time before
this round of rains returned. shelled them
out as a nice break from staining. measured
them on the scale at about 10lbs. not bad
for a cover crop on a spot i'd normally have
left bare.


songbird

Derald wrote:
songbird wrote:
Derald wrote:
...
Warning: I'm listening to very old shitkicker music performed by George
Jones and drinking whisky.

not something i would ever choose to mix.
i'll leave that to the pros...

Shoot; the two were made for each other. The relationship is symbiotic.

heh, i'll still leave it to others,
i need every brain cell i have left.


snip

glad to hear things are going well.
have you done the mustard greens under
them before?

Yes; my planting pattern for the peas is not terribly space-efficient, so I
always plant something else in the beds with them. Caveats are to wait for the
peas to get tall enough as not to be shaded out by faster growing and to avoid
plants that might require supplemental nitrogen before the peas are done. Also,
it helps if the understorey is a crop that can continue after the peas are done.

i made the mistake in my first planting of
not letting the peas grow another week or two
before putting in the lettuce seeds. they
rapidly took over. i did get a crop from the
peas, but not nearly as much as what i'm seeing
now with the peas growing alone.


snip

haha, well i hope you slept well after all
that?

Who remembers? LOL! Today's the day for second planting of peas. The bed's
ready, save for placing the dripline. Also will plant collards but in a separate
bed. Need to install the dripline there, too. This spring, as beds became
available, I began converting to dripline irrigation from those dreadful soaker
hoses that I once thought so wonderful.

i'm keeping things simple here -- going
back to trench and flood irrigation for a
few gardens next year. we are lucky that
water is not a limiting factor for us.


Temperatures down here have begun to moderate somewhat. Lows in the 60's
are predicted for the next few days but that's only temporary. By midweek, I
expect we'll be back to normal lows in the mid-70's. No danger yet to the
chill-sensitive garden denizens. The end of tropical storm season also is the
end of our rainy "season". Although not unheard of, I don't expect any
significant rainfall before mid-December or, maybe, Christmas.

The cooling temps have triggered a flush of blossoms on the cowpeas -- or,
maybe, they overheard me speaking of pulling them up -- ("Southern peas",
"blackeye peas") which is a mixed blessing:

i'd never even tried growing blackeye peas
until this season. as i put them in late i
didn't really expect a crop. it looked like
i just squeaked by and the pods are drying out
now. they probably could have used another
month. being flooded out four times probably
didn't help either. too much rain the past
few days for dry bean harvesting.

i really enjoyed how they grew being so
different than many of the other beans. with
the pods sticking out like antennae. i didn't
have them growing up a fence or trellis, that
probably would have helped them a lot too.


Although, I'm grateful for the
unexpected produce for the freezer those two beds soon will be needed for garlic
or onions and need preparation well in advance. I have a couple of yards of
chicken manure that came from a covered chicken house on a now-defunct egg
operation. Dry, it smells of ammonina and wet, believe me, it reverts to its raw
state or, at least, certainly seems to do. At any rate, after adding (some of)
it to the beds, I want to allow some "resting" time before planting onion sets
or garlic. Do not accept any further gardening advice from someone who tells you
that "fresh", "green", "raw" chicken manure does not need composting before use
as a soil amendment and will not damage plants!

go light with that stuff for the garlic and
onion patches. too much nitrogen means more
green up top and more bug troubles below.


i finished the first pick through of the
one pinto bean patch just in time before
this round of rains returned. shelled them
out as a nice break from staining. measured
them on the scale at about 10lbs. not bad
for a cover crop on a spot i'd normally have
left bare.

Staining wood, leather, lab specimens, or....??

staining the house. it's mostly red cedar slab
siding. a lot of edges that show. i still have
the eves to do (which means painting upside down
and carefully around the 70someodd vents). the
recent rains and a pulled tendon has given me a
time-out -- the foot feels better, this weekend will
have me back to it, i'd like to get this done so i
can get the gardens finished up i'd like to redo.


What do you do with the
bean vines? Do you turn them under, put them in a composting area? I don't grow
any kind of shelly beans except "baby" lima beans and we eat or freeze those
ffresh and somewhat immature. I don't grow anything specifically as a cover
crop. The garden is deliberately small and is planned around our nearly
continuous growing season. I do, however, track nutrient needs when succession
planting. Everything from the garden, including "weeds" goes to compost.

for the perennial bulb gardens i'll cut those beans
off at ground level so that the roots and nitrogen
fixing nodules will be left behind to rot and feed the
bulbs through the winter and spring. this will be the
first year of trying this approach so we'll see how it
goes.

all the pods will get used one way or another.
last year i put all the soybean pods through the worm
bins. made good worm poo eventually. this season i'll
have a lot more pods. a few bags i'll keep for the
winter worm bins, the rest will get buried or used as
mulch.

i am filling in three strawberry patches (about 2000sqft
total space) and each of those can use plenty of mulch on
top along with organic materials worked into the soil.
the compost pile doesn't get much other than stubborn
weed root clumps or seedy weeds.

for people with limited space it's not really worth
planting dry beans for that alone as they are cheap
enough in bulk. i like messing around and have various
empty spaces or patches in transition to play with.
i'll keep planting them now that i know what each is
like i can plant more suitably. knowing me i'll keep
collecting varieties as i come across them.


songbird

Derald wrote:
songbird wrote:

snip
i'm keeping things simple here -- going
back to trench and flood irrigation for a
few gardens next year. we are lucky that
water is not a limiting factor for us.

I did that for many years but shortly after moving here in '96, DW began
building raised beds and the slow drip irrigation works better in them. I buy a
prefab product that has 1/2 gal/hr uncompensated emitters at 6" spacing. Before
installation, I measure the ROF of each strand at 25PSI so that I can monitor
volume with a simple kitchen timer. I tried using those soaker hoses made from
old tires but found them to be fragile and almost impossible to repair reliably.
The nuisance factor just got to be too high. Keep in mind that, for all
practical purposes, whatever components I use are exposed to the elements year
'round. Life expectancy of the dripline remains unknown.

i'll be interested in hearing how long they actually
do last for you. we have raised beds too and yes, that
does make flood irrigation trenches a challenge, but
i'd rather have a way of watering from the side and
letting it flow in than having to get the leaves wet.


Water use isn't restricted in these parts but it is severely so in two
adjacent, far more urban, counties. A family member, who lives in one of those
counties, was ticketed for watering ornamenals with air conditioner condensate
discharge; go figure....

wow, that's pretty extreme!


Changing rainfall patterns and continured urbanization
have lowered the water table significantly within the past ten-or-so years; not
a good sign. I conserve but primarily because I begrudge paying the electricity
utility company to pump water out of the ground for me, LOL. I've kicked myself
many times for not arranging some sort of storage that will allow me to use the
hovel's roof as a catchment. Maybe next year, he says....

i have a list like that too.

our water table is pretty high. we
have two ditches through the property
that run the whole year. if electricity
gets horribly expensive then we could put
in a solar system to pump water from a
shallow well, but for the most part i'd
rather use any solar setup for heating
hot water and electricity for the house.
that would pay for itself a lot faster
than just setting it up for irrigation.


snip
i'd never even tried growing blackeye peas
until this season. as i put them in late i
didn't really expect a crop. it looked like
i just squeaked by and the pods are drying out
now. they probably could have used another
month. being flooded out four times probably
didn't help either. too much rain the past
few days for dry bean harvesting.

Cowpeas (just "peas" to Southerners; those spherical green peas in flat
pods are "English peas") are a Southern staple. They're shelled and eaten young
and immature while still full-flavored and sweet. Sometimes cooked together with
okra (gumbo). Often, very young tender pods are broken into suitable lengths and
added to the mix. Cowpeas, okra, and -- to a lesser degree -- lima beans are
among the few veggies that'll make it through July and August down here. These
two beds of peas were planted on July 16 and 21, respectively; the okra on March
24.

do people use the dried cowpeas for cooking too
or are they too yucko for that? i'm mostly growing
the soup beans so i have stuff that keeps without it
having to be canned or frozen. i did see a package
of cowpeas at a store and almost got them but i
didn't. if i see them next year i'll pick some up
and give them a try.

from what i'm seeing of the blackeyed peas harvest
so far they didn't like all the rain we've had lately.
i'm not a huge fan of them anyways so i'll grow a
much smaller plot next year (as a continuing seed
source, to see how they do with a full season and
they'll be up higher so they won't get flooded).


snip
i really enjoyed how they grew being so
different than many of the other beans. with
the pods sticking out like antennae. i didn't
have them growing up a fence or trellis, that
probably would have helped them a lot too.

That tendency toward vining differs across varieties and varies with plant
spacing. Mine are block-planted in two raised beds and fairly closely spaced.
They vine somewhat but I no longer trellis them because it does not seem to
affect yield, although, picking them requires a little more care. However, I've
not done any sort of actual comparison test and do tend to be a bit delusional.

i'm pretty sure for the vining pintos it would
have helped some as there would have been less
loss to rot. i planted them thickly and they
climbed all over each other. as it is yet another
thing to maintain i'm unlikely to trellis them
as i already have plenty to keep me going. if
i lose half a pound out of ten from rot and
don't have to deal with fiddling with trellis
and having to take them down or clean them off
at the end of a growing cycle then i consider it
a good trade for the time saved.

hmm, i think if i saved stalks from the cosmos
and planted beans to run on them for the next
season they would work well enough. i'll have to
keep a bundle for next year to test out. that
would be a nice use of them. something simple
like a piece of twine at the top and a teepee
pattern would not go against my ideas of
simplicity and low maint. at the end of the
season then they would get buried like
everything else. perhaps okra stalks would
work too? i asked my brother to save me some
okra seeds for next year to try here.


snip
for the perennial bulb gardens i'll cut those beans
off at ground level so that the roots and nitrogen
fixing nodules will be left behind to rot and feed the
bulbs through the winter and spring. this will be the
first year of trying this approach so we'll see how it
goes.

I just pull'em up and knock the nodules off with my hands. I must till,
with hand tools, between plantings in order to combat native tree roots and
about every third year I double dig. Compost is dear because I don't have much
raw material. Just what comes from the garden and kitchen plus the occasional
few bags of leaves that I can glean from the neighborhood.

ah... not too many trees here with roots
going into the gardens. only had some this
year when i've been digging up and redoing
the north bean patch. i like the full sun
and less maint. with all the stone patches
and pathways it is much better to not let
leaves or stuff accumulate as then it sprouts
weeds. from a few pine trees i'll rake some
of the pine needles up and use them for the
plants that like 'em. the cedar trees around
the borders are all mostly a ways away and
the other cedars scattered around are also
a ways away from any gardens.

a friend is giving me bags and bags of
shredded tree bark and branches from an old tree
that came down on their lot in the city. i'm
very happy and so are they, as they get to reuse
the bags. they said they'd give me their
shredded leaves later this fall too. i have
a large strawberry garden that can use them.
i'll have to remember to give them some jam next
time i visit.

nice neighbors are good to have and keep
happy. we are losing one of ours this
fall. gonna miss her a lot. i go down
and have tea and bring her veggies and fruits
when i have extra. *sigh*


songbird

"Derald" wrote in message
...

songbird wrote:

snip

i'll be interested in hearing how long they actually
do last for you.
Well, the hardest part of that will be the remembering, LOL! Don't expect
that to get any easier....
snip

do people use the dried cowpeas for cooking too
or are they too yucko for that?
Oh, yes. They're sort of bland because they're too mature. Season them
like
any other dried legume or beans 'n rice dish, pretty much. Dried peas and
rice
is called, colloquially, "hoppin' John" and traditionally is eaten on New
Year's
Day to bring luck. Sort of a cracker version of "Moros y Christianos", a
tradional Cuban black beans and rice dish.
snip

from what i'm seeing of the blackeyed peas harvest
so far they didn't like all the rain we've had lately.
i'm not a huge fan of them anyways so i'll grow a
much smaller plot next year (as a continuing seed
source, to see how they do with a full season and
they'll be up higher so they won't get flooded).
Well, the common blackeye and pinkeye peas from the seed racks are among
the least flavorful of the cowpeas but all of them are at their best when
young.
As they mature they quickly become bland and "starchy". Various "crowder"
and
"conch" varieties are more productive and more flavorful but are difficult
to
find outside the South and becoming more difficult to find down here as
creeping
urbanization kills off the "feed 'n seed" stores that catered to local
agriculture. Online, these guys have about the best selection of cowpeas
(they
call'em "southern peas") that I've found:
http://www.southernexposure.com/index.php.
--
Derald
FL USDA zone 9a
http://www.onlineconversion.com/

Sounds like something that should be discussed in a cooking or nutrition
newsgroup to me.

Steve

Steve B wrote:
"Derald" wrote in message
...

songbird wrote:

snip

i'll be interested in hearing how long they actually
do last for you.
Well, the hardest part of that will be the remembering, LOL! Don't
expect that to get any easier....
snip

do people use the dried cowpeas for cooking too
or are they too yucko for that?
Oh, yes. They're sort of bland because they're too mature. Season
them like
any other dried legume or beans 'n rice dish, pretty much. Dried
peas and rice
is called, colloquially, "hoppin' John" and traditionally is eaten
on New Year's
Day to bring luck. Sort of a cracker version of "Moros y
Christianos", a tradional Cuban black beans and rice dish.
snip

from what i'm seeing of the blackeyed peas harvest
so far they didn't like all the rain we've had lately.
i'm not a huge fan of them anyways so i'll grow a
much smaller plot next year (as a continuing seed
source, to see how they do with a full season and
they'll be up higher so they won't get flooded).
Well, the common blackeye and pinkeye peas from the seed racks are
among the least flavorful of the cowpeas but all of them are at
their best when young.
As they mature they quickly become bland and "starchy". Various
"crowder" and
"conch" varieties are more productive and more flavorful but are
difficult to
find outside the South and becoming more difficult to find down here
as creeping
urbanization kills off the "feed 'n seed" stores that catered to
local agriculture. Online, these guys have about the best selection
of cowpeas (they
call'em "southern peas") that I've found:
http://www.southernexposure.com/index.php.
--
Derald
FL USDA zone 9a
http://www.onlineconversion.com/

Sounds like something that should be discussed in a cooking or
nutrition newsgroup to me.

Steve

I don't understand how the growing and eating qualities of pea cultivars is
off topic for rec.gardens.edible or was two sentences about cooking old peas
too much?

David

"David Hare-Scott" wrote in message
...
Steve B wrote:
"Derald" wrote in message
...

songbird wrote:

snip

i'll be interested in hearing how long they actually
do last for you.
Well, the hardest part of that will be the remembering, LOL! Don't
expect that to get any easier....
snip

do people use the dried cowpeas for cooking too
or are they too yucko for that?
Oh, yes. They're sort of bland because they're too mature. Season
them like
any other dried legume or beans 'n rice dish, pretty much. Dried
peas and rice
is called, colloquially, "hoppin' John" and traditionally is eaten
on New Year's
Day to bring luck. Sort of a cracker version of "Moros y
Christianos", a tradional Cuban black beans and rice dish.
snip

from what i'm seeing of the blackeyed peas harvest
so far they didn't like all the rain we've had lately.
i'm not a huge fan of them anyways so i'll grow a
much smaller plot next year (as a continuing seed
source, to see how they do with a full season and
they'll be up higher so they won't get flooded).
Well, the common blackeye and pinkeye peas from the seed racks are
among the least flavorful of the cowpeas but all of them are at
their best when young.
As they mature they quickly become bland and "starchy". Various
"crowder" and
"conch" varieties are more productive and more flavorful but are
difficult to
find outside the South and becoming more difficult to find down here
as creeping
urbanization kills off the "feed 'n seed" stores that catered to
local agriculture. Online, these guys have about the best selection
of cowpeas (they
call'em "southern peas") that I've found:
http://www.southernexposure.com/index.php.
--
Derald
FL USDA zone 9a
http://www.onlineconversion.com/

Sounds like something that should be discussed in a cooking or
nutrition newsgroup to me.

Steve

I don't understand how the growing and eating qualities of pea cultivars
is off topic for rec.gardens.edible or was two sentences about cooking old
peas too much?

David

Just as I don't understand my question about eating corn silk being taken by
some as not relevant to this newsgroup. BTW, my post above is meant to be
taken with a grain of salt. It will give it the proper flavor.............

Steve

"Derald" wrote in message
...

"David Hare-Scott" wrote:

I don't understand how the growing and eating qualities of pea cultivars
is
off topic for rec.gardens.edible or was two sentences about cooking old
peas
too much?
Growing them and cooking them do seem complementary but, hey, playing
topic
police may be the high point of his day and if that's all it takes to make
little stevie feel useful, well, let him have at it, say I. I'm grateful
to have
contributed to another's sense of self worth. Truth is, I had thought to
suggest
that perhaps the thread had drifted a bit but Nanny beat me to it.
Are "southern peas" , AKA cowpeas, cultivated in your neck of the woods?
--
Derald
FL USDA zone 9a
http://www.onlineconversion.com/

I thought you had me killfiled.

Derald wrote:
"David Hare-Scott" wrote:

I don't understand how the growing and eating qualities of pea
cultivars is off topic for rec.gardens.edible or was two sentences
about cooking old peas too much?
Growing them and cooking them do seem complementary but, hey, playing
topic police may be the high point of his day and if that's all it
takes to make little stevie feel useful, well, let him have at it,
say I. I'm grateful to have contributed to another's sense of self
worth. Truth is, I had thought to suggest that perhaps the thread had
drifted a bit but Nanny beat me to it.
Are "southern peas" , AKA cowpeas, cultivated in your neck of the
woods?

Yes, they are usually used as stock feed and/or green manure not human food.
We miss out on a number of cuisines and types of ingredients that are common
in the USA. I dare say the converse is also true. There is no customary
way to cook cowpeas so either you have to go it alone from recipe books or
pay big money in a big city restaurant where some chef has 'discovered' some
cuisine that uses them.

Oz has undergone a food revolution in the last 50 years and there is no sign
of it abating. Some vegetables such as okra have gone through an adoption
process and are now not so rare here, so you can get them in better grocers
and ordinary people like me grow them. Okra appears to have originated from
Africa and arrived in the US with the slave trade. I guess cowpeas did the
same. So maybe we will be eating cowpeas in years to come.

I haven't taken time to play with them as I don't especially need a legume
to improve my soil and many legumes (eg standard peas , broad beans etc) use
up resources to grow large amounts of greenery for a small edible crop and
they take time to prepare. I don't find the calories available or the
flavour worth the trouble in many cases. If I am wrong about the wonderous
taste of cowpeas tell me about it.


David