Peas on earth

We've had peas.

Every night for about a week, I picked a bowl of peas, at least as big as this one. Then, we shelled.

Giving us:

I'd say the time and space it takes to grow peas is enormous in comparison to the final yield. I put 15 cups in the freezer. And we ate a lot fresh. So good, if not so plentiful.

There was a birthday this past week, as my daughter reminded us.

I wonder how old the person was who proofread this gift bag:

We had a party last night, featuring all kinds of games of skill, including "find the Swedish goldfish in the whipped cream, without using your hands":

Great fun.

Instead of cake, there were these:

Homemade chocolate-chip cookie ice cream sandwiches.

I highly recommend these as a cake alternative, but I made them too big; none of the kids could finish them.

Life continues to be summer-crazy. I have done no knitting recently but I have been spinning, spinning, in every spare moment on my sheep-to-sweater project (in the sidebar to your right). I thought I was almost done, and to my dismay found that I only had 1100 yards of bulky, not enough for the Aran I wanted to design.

Then I came across two more bags of fiber in the spare room, another 15 ounces (400+ yards). My joy at having more yarn to work with was dampened by the fact that I'd have to spin a whole lot more. But I'm dealing with it.

I have little else to update, other than that our darling new hinny is not working out too well with the goats and sheep, and when she chases them and then bites them, they tend to jump, or run through, the electric fence. It's been kind of stressful this week, to say the least. (If you're local, and can give Wanda a good home around other equines, she's free and adorable, just out of her element here. Call me.)

And last, Booga J wasn't kidding about her granola recipe. Fabulous. I tried it last week and made about 3 quarts, which were gone in two days. I've made another batch. It's really easy, really yummy, and it makes your house smell fantastic, especially if you use the cardomom that's recommended in the recipe.

I used oats, almonds, and chopped dates. The variations are endless, however. Try it, you'll love it.

Last but not least, I just got A Fine Fleece, by Lisa Lloyd, out of the library. Beautiful, and good whether you spin your own yarn or not. Whether I will ever find time to spin the yarn for my own sweater, or have enough money to buy that much yarn, I don't know. But I love the patterns.

Now I need to go amend my compost heap.

Edited to add:

Meet Annette, a Narragansett turkey. She's teaching the other birds that eating out of a human's hand means extra treats.

Comments

[AnnaMarie]

Bummer about the new Hinny. Sometimes it just doesn't work out. We didn't plant nearly enough shelling peas but I've got 20 pints of sugar snaps and snow peas put up. Now I'm letting the snows get fat pods and maybe I'll have some more little peas.

[NeedleDancer]

Bummer about the hinny indeed. I wish we could take her, but ... well... I'm pretty sure she won't fit in the cartop carrier.

Speaking of which, are you likely to be up for drop in visitors on the 28th? If so, we'd love to drop in. If not, I totally understand. This summer has been weird, and our timing is all screwed up.

[Sylvia]

By the time my daughter was 3 she had 80 row feet of peas just for her own nibbling and for when her cousins stopped by. We could never plant enough to meet both our needs and the demand from the neighborhood. One year I planted hundreds of row feet of peas, closely spaced, trained up on wires, and it still wasn't enough! I had calluses from shelling.

The ice cream sandwiches look wonderful. I've been experimenting with making smaller cookies when I send batches to school with DD. She's in high school and the kids are very conscious of sugar and each take only one cookie, but the teachers eat them by the handful!

[--Deb]

Ouch about that gift bag typo. Because, you know, spelling "birthday" is so HARD.

You're obviously having fun with granola! So am I, though mine is cooked in a crock pot, so I don't need to turn on the oven. Favorite combo so far? Almonds, coconut, pepitas, dried cranberries--and with a sprinkling of wheat germ and flax seeds.

[Carrie]

Poor ol hinny. Poor old other animals! Damn, my own granola? I'd weigh 1000 pounds in no time.

[Heather]

Love the whipped cream idea! My girl is having friends over for a birthday sleepover -- we just may have to copy you. :)

[donna lee]

I have one child who likes peas. We always tried to plant some for her but no one else will touch them. I think they look better than they taste!

[trek]

So, when is the new pony coming home?

[Susan]

Too bad about Wendy. Unless they're raised with small ruminants they can be very aggressive with them, even to the point of killing them. Hence the reason why they can make an effective guard animal when they are raised with them - they will then be very protective of them.

[lynne s of oz]

Happy belated birthday to a not so small someone!
My aunt Vera used to shell peas. We would help her for a little while. She'd shell peas for HOURS at a time. She used to visit sometimes but after she left, we'd have frozen peas again. LOL
Pity that the hinny isn't good with your other animals.

[Leila]

How do you come up with so many fun things to do ?? I sit back and read your blog and think.."why didn't I think of that?" We grew one pea stalk...really by accident...through some seeds on the ground. My kids like peas when they come from a plant not a bag. Delicious tasting though. I so want your farm life !!!

[gayle]

We've been enjoying peas, too. I've managed to get some in the freezer - which is hard when we just want to eat them all now!
Too bad about Wanda. The lady we bought our sheep from has a guard donkey in with her flock, but he was raised with sheep.

[lisa]

I make granola a lot, but have never put in cinnamon or cardamom. Will try! Today actually!