Anyone harvest pea shoots?

I got out of work early due to the storm and watched "Take Home Chef' where women go to the market and this great looking guy -( Hey I can dream can't I?)well, anyway, this cute guy comes up and offers to fix your dinner. ( sigh..) Long story short..he fixes "pea shoots" stir fried in garlic. I didn't realize you could eat the rest of the plant of snow peas. Anyone else try this?

I grow these all the time. I have been using for stir fry veggies, I didn't know anyone else used them! I also use them in salad all the time. This is my winter garden. I grow sunflower greens, buckwheat lettuce, peas shoots and radish greens for salads. Harvest in just 7days. It started as a way to keep gardening, but now I grow these all year round to supplement the garden in spring, summer and fall. My latest venture has been broccoli, cabbage and different coles. I like soil-sprouts better than sprouting in jars.

What a fantastic idea, TD! I now have a project for this weekend. ;) Do you use any particular varieties or will just about any taste good?

Hi Cyndie, There are lots of seeds that are good soil-sprouts, I use Black Oil sunflower, Sugar Snap peas, Diakon Radish and just regular sprouting Buckwheat. I use either organic seed or commercial untreated, Johnny's or Pinetree have them. Also some great photos on thedailygardener site, too. I like chinese cabbage, broccoli, a radish called Hong Vit is really pretty, Red kale, Red Cabbage. But don't bother with any squash seeds, they are terrible, bitter beyond belief! The picture shows tonights salad! A little avacado and tomato, grated carrot, and a home made dressing, yum :)

Thanks for the information, TD. You have a nice web site. I can see I have been missing some opportunities for fresh veggies. Make sure you let others on other forums know we can be eating healthier all year round. There is nothing better than a fresh salad with something besides icebox lettuce. Cyndie

Thanks for the kind words. The nice veggies are sort of a byproduct of keeping my sanity through a long cold winter! Well almost. I'd love to hear how it goes for you. TD

Hey Cyndie, did you try planting yet? Actually I am new to the message board so I am not to clear on how to let people know other that through in my 2 cents here and there.

Hi TD, No I haven't, but not for lack of trying. I got out my pans and went to get my potting soil and discovered it was frozen solid. LOL. So, as soon as it is workable I am going to try it. I will post a picture and let you know how it is going. I am pretty new to posting here, too. You could post a classified ad if you want to steer people to your website, or if you want to just start a discussion, try starting a thread in the veggie forum. The NE gardening is probably not frequented as much as some of the others such as the vegetable forum. There are several regional forums and people may stick to the one in their area. There are over 200 forums here so it takes some time to visit just a portion of them.

Funny you say that, I just hauled in my potting soil too, hard as a rock! Oh well, the mudroom is warm enough to thaw it out so I can plant a few onions tomorrow!

The container forum looks interesting, but I am not sure how or rather where the soil-sprouts really belong. I guess a loittle bit of a few things, container, apartment, veggie, hmmm I'll have to think about it. did you get your potting soil thawed out? do you want to try growing pea shoots? I can explain how if you want. We just discovered a new favorite salad, when we ran out of lettuce last week all I had was pea shoots and buckwheat sowe figured, why not, we'll just them for a salad and it was terrific with just the grated carrot and dressing.

I hope to get seeds started this weekend. I am going to save the peas for outside, but I have some seeds I previously bought for sprouts that I will try. I will post some pics if they come up. I don't have many windowsills that get sun, so I will put them under lights, which I have a good setup of. When I get ready to have a salad, I will ask for your dressing recipe though. :)

Hi cyndie, did you get started? There is another thread you might be interested in the Container Garden uner 'soil-sprouts'.

I did! I have a picture I will post for you tonite. After we move some snow. ;) About 15" here.

Same here, 'only' 12", though. This morning I was glad I have the soil-sprouts growing, it will be another 3 or 4 weeks before I can plant the peas, lettuce etc. This is out my window this morning!

cyndiehook: Try a search on "Dou Miao" the term used in Asian cooking for pea shoots.

Everygreen seeds has a "Dou Miao" pea which it says was bred for shoots:

http://www.evergreenseeds.com/snowpeashoots.html


A problem I've had with Everygreen however is they don't give the true name. Several times I bought what I thought was a hard to find item and it turned out to be a common plant (once an invasive weed). Their "Dou Miao" might be Dwarf Grey sugar which is good for shoots and is readily available on discount racks.



This message was edited Apr 5, 2007 3:50 PM

The seeds I sell are Snow Peas. They work so well that I think they are the best. Thanks for the info, you can be sure I'll try them. The peas, I find grow best in low light. That is once they are up, I green them away from the windows and the grow absolutely straight.

Thanks for the link, David! The Asian name gives me a new direction to go. I love to cook and I am always looking for new foods or new ways to cook. It will be fun experimenting and finding the best varieties for taste.

TD, I promised you a pic and here it is. My first experiment was with Buckwheat sprouts. I probably could have gotten more if I planted thicker, but they taste great. Your peas look like they are sprouted on top the soil. Is that how you do all of them?

Fantastic Buckwheat Lettuce. If you have the peas growing the two make a very good mix. I have to say that looks spectacular. Where are you getting your seed from?

I soak the seeds then spread them on top of the soil. I cover them with soaking wet newsprint paper for the first 3 or 4 days. The seed push the cover up. The sunflower seeds I actually plant one by one with the pointed end down, it is well worth the extra effort, but the seed is still not covered with soil.

We got 8" of snow last night!

I bought them from a small natural and organic food store in Auburn. I was going to sprout them in a jar and then saw your method. I also have mung seeds, but haven't done anything with them. I have a small south facing bed against the house that I planted peas in last weekend. At this rate, they will be pushing up though snow. My chives were coming up next to that bed so I decided to try it. I planted snap and snow peas. I thought I would try stir-frying the ones I thin.

Mung beans are not good soil-sprouts. At least thatI have been able grow. I still use the jar for them.

Hi cyndie,

I asked a friend in China about the Doumiao (he says it is one word).
This is his reply:
"Hi Peter,
Yes Doumiao and Pea shoots are the same thing. I saw your way of cooking at your home when in Vermont:) But my way is totally different. We often hot the oil first, then put the pea shoots in together with some garlic. After 4-5 mins frying it can be picked up. We seldom cook it with water and cover the pan. Some day we must have chance to cook it together in both ways so can compare the flavour with each other.... "

I thought you might enjoy this!

Thanks, TD!
I will definitely give it a try. If your friend has any other simple ways to cook veggies that we typically don't do here, it would be great to hear about them.
Cyndie

I was thinking the same thing! They have been cooking sprouts for a long time.

We tried the pea shoots and garlic stir fry last night. Great meal with brown rice. I harvested 2 trays 4" x 8", chopped pretty fine, garlic slivered, all stir-fried in hot oil quickly, stirring continuously for about 4 min. Yum. I planted more peas 2 days ago so we will have another batch for this week end. Next time I'll take a picture.

Yes, we want photos!

Here's the stupid question of the day: I'm ready to plant but ... after harvest what do I do with the seeds that sprouted? If I cut off the green, to use it, will the sprouts sprout again? Do I pick out each one and use the soil again or not? I'm sure I can put the seeds (after I've cut off the greens) in the compost......right?

TD- You are making me hungry! We are finishing our basement and I have spent all my spare time painting. Maybe this week I can get back to the important things like gardening and eating fresh veggies. I will post when my second batch is up. I was going to wait and do it outside, but spring seems so far away at the moment. The great thing about doing it the way you do is the weather is not a factor.

Pirl, this is new to me too, so we will have to wait for TD to answer. Those are great questions I would like to know the answer to, too.

We just got our power back and have dug out of the the snow!

1.Pirl, great question, after you harvest the gardenening is done, I just compost the little soil 'cake', seeds, hulls, and start over. I plant a little and harvest each day. Just out of interest note the mass of roots growing along the bottom of the tray, that is why I put the compost and kelp in the bottom of the tray!

2. Only the peas shoots will grow a second crop, it is not as lush as the first one but the seed will send up a second shoot that is still tender and delicious.

3.I don't reuse the soil, but I have. I used to let the soil dry out completely then crumble it up and re-use the soil and compost the roots and hulls by sifting it. I decided it was too much work for a few cents worth of soil!

4.Compost loves the seed leftovers. I have been doing it for years now and it make great compost with the regular stream of kitchen and garden stuff.

Cyndie, you put your finger right on it, that has been the best part, sort of like the Postman, the weather doesn't matter. This time last year I was in the garden, not going to happen for a few week this year! I am planting extra soil-sprouts this week! I have a new crop of Hong Vit(Chinese Radish) and two other varieties of radish so I am going to try a "Radish Relish" with them, I'll let you know....

Thanks, TD. Glad to know you have your power back and soon that snow will be gone.... by July, for sure.

Summer in Vermont = "three months of poor sledding!" "When you see the first Robin in Vermont ...you know winter can't be far behind"

Another message from China:
"Hi Peter,
I always cook DOUMIAO with the samething, maybe add some venegar too. But I think your Doumiao should be more delicious because you grow it by yourself but ours bought from supermarket so it should be too much fertilized. My mother always said that all vegetable in xiamen taste not as good as in my hometown because we grow it naturally there.

Winwood"

I told you I'd post pictures of the Pea Shoots and Garlic Stir Fry. I made them for Lunch today, this first picture is the tray just befor i cut them, I guess you couldn't get any fresher greens!

I Chopped the greens 1/4" TO 1/2" long.

Stir fry with slivered garlic, 2 or 3 garlic cloves. I use the 'high heat' canola oil. It was easier to use a spatula and a wooden spoon or two spatulas to stir the greens, otherwise I kept spilling the greens over the edge!

Served with a dash of soy sauce, and rice vinegar.

TD - looks good! Thanks for the photos and instructions.

I wish I could convince the rest of my household to be a little more adventurous. TD, you also might try the wintersowing forum. What was such a turnoff to me was sending me to your commercial website.

Here on Daves Garden, we're not allowed to pay each other for things. I mentioned in one thread that I regretted having forgotten to buy sweet pea seeds. The next week, three or four different packages of sweet pea seeds arrived at my house! That's what DavesGarden is like!!

xxx, Carrie

This message was edited Apr 22, 2007 6:53 PM

One of my garden buddies told me he had a Philly Cheese steak sub loaded with pea shoots, he said it was 2" HIGH with shoots. Best 'samich' he ever had!! Would a thunk it?