Magnolia Sugar Snap Pea

I absolutely love the look of this sugar snap pea. A sucker for anything purple, when I read in the Adaptive Seeds catalogue that the pods were purple, I had to grow them and see for myself.

The flowers are sweet too. I'm usually not a fan of pink, but I like the two shades of pink here. The banner (that's the top part of the flower) is a light blush. The wings (the two petals underneath the banner) are a dark dusty rose hue. And the keel (the 5th petal in between the wings) is a bluish purple which you can see in the flower on the left.

The pods are longer and not as fat as the Cascadia variety. But I do like how nutty the flavor is. Maybe a little more water on the irrigation front will help.

I'm super excited these came through for me. I can't wait to include them in a summery Asian noodle salad. Yum!

Hurry up and grow!

Right after the 4th of July, I start to panic over how well my veggies are growing. Mainly, I am freaking out that the plants aren't big enough nor do they seem to be growing vigorously either. Melodrama kicks in and I'm ruling out producing a single tomato this summer.

I fall into this pattern every year, and somehow I end up with a decent amount of veggies to pick from the garden. Although, I am still a little worried about the tomatoes.

I was relieved to finally see the Kew Blue pole beans and the Sugar Magnolia snap peas are twirling and twining up their bamboo trellises.

 

Looking at my tomatoes, I noticed my Estonian Yellow Cherry has tiny fruits starting. Yay! I still have a ton more floweres, but hopefully the warmer weather this week will help. 

Green but promising!

I harvested some Apollo broccoli last week and missed one. I snapped it off, leaving a long stem on it. I'm always a little intimidated by eating raw broccoli since it is usually tasteless (from the grocery store) or way too bitter (waiting too long to pick it). It was so sweeet! The ends are great snacking and the florets--the little flowers we eat--had just the right amount of spice.

Sorry this is blurry, but I polished it off right after I took the photo. Oops!

The next post I'm planning is all about cucubits--cucumbers and squash...