The Color of Spring

By Lori Powell

It’s nice to be green, especially in spring after a rain. Amazing how many variations of green can sprout out of the ground. Every bud and flower is exploding with color.

I can’t take my eyes off of the lushness of it all. The first thing I do when I get up in the morning is open all the shades to embrace the greenness.

In celebration of the color of spring I have developed a recipe for spring pea soup with lemon and mint. I will be eating mine on the back porch while breathing in the sweet scents of everything renewed!

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Peas in a Pod

By Katie Barreira

Whether from a childhood Halloween costume, grocery delivery service, or maternity outfitter, we’re all familiar with the concept of peas in a pod. But for all this anthropomorphizing of the charming vegetable, how often do you actually see a pea in its pod?

There are snow peas, the flat, slightly crescent shaped legumes common in Asian stir-fries, but like green beans and sugar snap peas, these pods can be consumed shell and all. Then, there are the lumpy bags of crystallized peas found in the freezer section. But, once upon a time, there was such a thing as a shelling pea, a long, waxy-skinned pod, lined with vibrant green orbs.

In the movies, shelling or garden peas (as they are commonly known), play a starring role in porch scenes where Southern women hull away the afternoon. This week, I came across a literary reference to shelling peas, which sent me straight to the farmers’ market.

“I love how you can snap a pea’s stem and pull the string and how it leaves a perfect seam that opens easily under your thumbnail. And then you find those sweet, starchy peas in their own canoe of crisp, watery, and almost sugary pod.”
-Gabrielle Hamilton, Blood, Bones & Butter

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