The Heat KILLED My Peas!

Out of nowhere we got a heat-wave that lasted about a week. While the basil and tomatoes are adoring the warmth, the peas decided it was time to die.

We had an obscene amount of peas growing in one of our garden boxes and while it seemed they were taking their time blooming and producing pods, the pods formed and I patiently waited for them to reach shelling size to I could freeze them for future culinary uses. Well, typical of Northwest weather, we had no transition between sweater-heavy pants-jacket-just-in-case weather and oh-my-gawd-do-I-have-to-wear-clothes weather. Literally overnight we went from daytime temperatures in the low 60s to high 80s and the mercury continued to rise throughout the week. Needless to say the peas decided they were done, and when I went to pick a few pods to check their progress, the peas were hard as a rock. I’ll still pick them, just let them dry further and can them for split pea soup this autumn.

Now, this harvest isn’t going to be a complete loss. There were a lot of peas that were still in the beginning phase of forming pods so hopefully they will produce some edible peas to freeze, but I’d say we lost over half of them. However, I’m not holding my breath that they’ll be okay, and today I plan on harvesting and shelling as many of the non-mummified pods I can. With any luck I’ll be able to fill a quart-sized bag.

Of course, if we decide to plant more peas for a fall harvest, we’ll plant them in another box and maybe not quite so many. The other box is for crop rotation, which isn’t necessary with legumes, but a good idea to replenish the soil in another box as they put nutrients back into the soil that many plants leach out, and not so many because, again, an obscene amount were crammed into that 4x4 foot box. Then again, I might be over peas… at least for this year.