What you plant and why it matters...

So this year I broke down and bought a bag of pea seeds.

I normally just plant what we saved from last year.

This year the packaging seduced me.

The Heritage Seeds Co.

Brown paper bag shouting

"LINCOLN HOMESTEADER"

I couldn't help myself.

I note that normally I don't care what kind of stuff I plant.

But thanks to my new job growing organic vegetables at The Kitchen Garden...

I know it matters what you grow.

I'll show you the proof.

Above you'll see the pea on the left...is one grown from seed we saved.

The one on right is the Lincoln Homesteader.

I will forever use capitals and call them by their right name...

they are an amazing specimen of shelling pea.

The one on the left (ours) produced poorly and with only about 3-4 peas per pod.

The one on the right (Righteous Lincoln Homesteader) kept pumping out the peas for 5 weeks and produced a whopping 12-14 peas per pod!!!

NOTE:  They then produced a very healthy second blush of perfectly sweet peas in the middle of AUGUST!?!!

That means...

We have 2 large freezer bags stuffed full of peas for the winter.

Dang!

That's the most peas we've ever been able to store!!!

Thank you Heritage Seed Co.

Thank you Lincoln Homesteader.

PS.  We planted another beds of peas two weeks ago...I'll give you 3 guesses what kind...

Garlic Mustard....Mustard

In the last few years, I was introduced to the lovely 'weed', Garlic Mustard.

It's one of those plants that came over with European settlers...

and has taken over ever since.

Seriously!  

There is no where in North America where you will have to adhere

 to strict conservation collecting with this one.

In fact, the Ontario Government has come out with a super cool website to tell you all about it!

It might take you a few seasons to make sure it is what you think it is.

Spring time looks like the above picture.

The cute, scalloped leaves are hard to mistake.

Once you identify these leaves, its hard to miss them.

You start to see them literally

EVERYWHERE!

The bright green spring leaves are a treat too.

They taste garlicky and goes great in a salad.

By August, they start looking like the above picture.

They shoot up and send out spindly shoots.

They sprout these wee seed pods.

Once the pods are dry...collect immediately!

I've checked one day and by the next day the wind has scattered them all.

Again, I can't stress enough...collect as many as you want...

You don't have to worry about this hearty plant coming back.

The seeds look like long poppyseeds.

They have a light mustard taste.

I've heard you can made mustard from grinding the seeds...

So that was our big experiment this year!

We collected the seed pods and slowly, patiently removed all of the seeds from each one.

Each pods contains anywhere from 2-10 seeds.

This process is time consuming...so plan a movie marathon or binge watch session.

A few weeks ago I actually got around to making the mustard I had set out to make using these seeds.

It turned out great!

I was amazed at the distinct wasabi taste.

Imagine...making wasabi in your own backyard!

I will admit I was a little disappointed...it didn't taste more like mustard.

Just being honest.

I guess I'll have to grow mustard greens in order to actually make mustard.

Even still...a very cool experiment indeed.

Thanks go out to The 3 Foragers for inspiring me to move beyond my comfort zone!!!