Peas, Wonderful Peas

You may recall I have mentioned my pea vines here and there is another good photo of them here. The vines were tiny and just starting to climb.  But things have changed! 

Here are the peas next to a five year old.

We are growing an heirloom variety of shelling pea called Telephone Pole. They are supposed to grow about six feet.  The supports they are on are just a little less than five feet.  The vines have over grown the tops of the netting and are folding down on themselves on the other side of this wall of vines.  I think the vines have well exceeded the six foot mark and are working on about seven feet right now.  The Rain Barrels are behind and right next to the peas but you can't even seen the barrels over the vines any more. 

Look at 'em all.

And they are producing like crazy.  I haven't had an opportunity to really look over the garden this week with the Garage Sale going on.  But when I went out this morning the vines where covered with peas ready to go.  The picture above is our first harvest of peas.  Enough for several meals for our small family. My daughter helped me shell these peas.  She insisted on helping.  We may make a farmer out of her yet.  Don't tell her.  She wants to be a cowgirl. 

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The Dinner After

At the end of my post about my Dutch Oven Bread I mused about what I could make for dinner with a pre-heated Dutch Oven in my grasp.  Well on my counter.  It really was too hot to grasp.

I had a whole chicken in my refrigerator awaiting a cooking date so suddendly the light bulb went off in my head.  Why not cook the chicken in the Dutch Oven.  Duh.  I really hadn't planned this so I was feeling very clever.

To start I put some butter into the Dutch Oven.

See it really was hot in these pictures

Then I sliced up some onions and layered them on the bottom of the Dutch Oven.  This helps insure the chicken does not stick to the pan.  My Dutch Oven is well seasoned so the chicken should not stick but I like the flavor the onions bring to the meal... we ate the onions too!

I also added some chicken stock to the pot.  This will add some moisture to the cooking environment to help keep the chicken from drying out.  Again, when cooking in a lided environment, drying out is not a big problem.  And again, I like the flavor the stock adds.  My chicken stock happened to be frozen.  When I have the remains of a whole chicken left over, I boil it down for stock.  (Which will be the ultimate end for this chicken). Then when the stock is cooled and strained, I freeze the stock in ice cube trays.  The frozen stock cubes are then sealed up in ziptop bags in the freezer for future use.  This makes it much easier to use the stock in multiple recipes.  Someday I should actually measure how much stock is in one cube so I know how many cubes to the cup but that is a project for another day.

Add onions and frozen chicken stock (frozen is not required)

The chicken was carefully placed on top of the onions.  I say carefully because remember the Dutch Oven is still close to 400 degrees in these pictures.  I sprinkled the chicken with salt, thyme, sage, and basil.  A pinch or two of each.  Season to your own liking.  

Add whole chicken and season

The lid was put on the Dutch Oven and the whole thing put into a 425 degree oven for about an hour and a half.  The chicken was falling off the bones and very moist and tender.

Not the best picture but it sure was yummy!

After the chicken was cooking away I also cut up a variety grape and cherry heiloom tomatoes.  I put them into a square baking pan with some olive oil.  The tomatoes were mixed up in the oilive oil then I sprinkled them with garlic power, salt, and grated parmasan cheese. 

Tomatoes ready for the oven

The tomatoes were put into the oven next to the Dutch Oven for the last 30 minutes of cooking to roast.  They turn out so sweet and flavorful you just have to try them even if you do not like tomatoes as a rule.

Roasted Tomatoes - So Yummy!

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Around the garden

It has been cold and wet for weeks now.  But at least is hasn't snowed in a while.  The garden is growing slowly but there are a few plants that seem to be enjoying this weather.

Potatoes going strong

These are my Norland Red potato plants.  They are big, strong and healthy in spite of the cool soil temperature. 

Tiny Green Bean Bed

This is my green bean bed.  We had so many green beans last year that I cut way back.  The two plants in the back are climbers and the two in the front are bush beans.  The large green clump in the front left is one of my many chives.

Onion sets

Here is an onion bed which is just to the left of the green bean bed.  While it is hard to see in this picture, they are all planted in nice straight rows.  My hubby planted them this year.  When I plant them, they come up in unruly clumps.

Telephone Pole Peas

Growing at the base of the net trellis are telephone pole peas.  This is an heirloom variety of climbing pea that we first tried last year.  To be honest, we have not had the most luck with heirloom varieties.  Some of that may be our inhospitable climate and some of that is because for many heirlooms, there is just not enough information about the requirements of the plants so we have to do our best and guess. 

These peas were a heavy producer.  Much heavier than I was expecting.  My daughter would run outdoors and pick peas by the handful, eating them pod and all!  I am so glad she loves veggies.

We saved lots of telephone pole pea seeds last year, simply letting the pods dry on the vine.  When we cleaned out the peas at the end of the season I shelled all the dried peas and stored them in a paper bag (which I remembered to label... an ongoing theme for me).  The saved seeds were sown thickly and are doing well.

Behind the peas are the catnip plants.  With this many cats we need catnip, it just wouldn't be right otherwise.  To the right of the peas is the lower strawberry patch.

The soil to the left of the peas is actually full of corn.  The corn is about 2 inches tall and can't even be seen in the picture.  At this rate we may have corn for Halloween!