Time for P's

The P's are in---peas and potatoes!

Ashley planted a combination of sugar snap peas and English peas. Because the plants have grown every which way in the garden, I can't really tell which is which. Snow peas taste delicious pod and all--the boys snack on them in the garden--and if left long enough, have peas of similar size to the English peas. I picked our first batch this past Monday. 

Shelling them took a while (thankful for the John Deere Action DVD that kept the boys entertained while I readied supper) but it was worth the work. Next year we'll double our pea production and string them up. Although my parents have always just let the peas be in the garden, I think it will be much easier to harvest when they're growing up (and next summer I won't have a pregnant belly that gets in the way either!). 

We probably could have let the potatoes go a bit longer but we needed the garden real estate to make room for more of our summer plantings (tomatoes, eggplants and squash). We planted maybe 3 lbs of Yukon Gold potatoes and ended up with two 5-gallon buckets (not quite full) in return. Like carrots, potatoes are a lot of fun for the boys to dig up. All four of us were in the garden after supper last night, gently digging through our mounds to find these good-sized beauties. This will supply our homemade oven french fry habit for a while. We'll plant potatoes again in the fall. 

We read the potatoes need to be stored in a cool, dry place. As you can imagine, it's hard finding such a location in South Carolina but we're going to try our crawlspace. It's cool under there even if it's over 90 degrees outside. 

In other garden news, the lettuces and spinach are done--but what a run we had! The corn is growing along, as are the cucumbers and squash. I picked the first blueberry yesterday and the bushes promise many more. YUM!