Piles of peas

  Our early plantings of peas drowned so we replanted heavy.  They are doing great and are all coming on at once.  That means there are plenty to shell on these hot afternoons.  We love peas!  We call these Nick's since the seed came to us from Eric's great-uncle Nick.  They are small but shell pretty easily.  They were the winners in our taste test this year.

FRESH POPCORN

   We popped our first batch of fresh popcorn today and oh was it good.  We grow an heirloom variety (which is basically the opposite of a hybrid) called 'Pennsylvania Dutch butter flavored.'  Eric especially likes it at this stage before it's really ready.  After another couple weeks of air drying it should pop fully but at this in-between stage some kernels will fully pop but others will only halfway pop.  Eric thinks the popcorn flavor seems concentrated in that minimally popped kernel, and he loves the extra crunch.  If you follow Eric's example you'll probably break a tooth, so if you don't want to break a tooth don't do it, and if you do do it, let us know how you like your popcorn.