Pick of the Season: Snow Peas
Written By Lesley Porcelli
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Play with Your Food
- Use snow peas to make the smile on a "food face" (olives for eyes, a cherry tomato nose . . .).
- Hold them up to the light and count the tiny peas growing inside.
- Make vampire fangs.
- Put them across your teeth for a green smile.
- Lay a few on the kitchen table in a pattern, cover with a piece of paper, and make a snow pea rubbing with colored pencils.
- Shape mashed potatoes into a boat and add a snow pea for a sail.
Fun Facts
Snow peas are technically fruits. Pea plants blossom before producing peas; once the petals fall off, the flowers' ovaries swell until they become the pods we recognize.
Snow peas and sugar snap peas are actually two different things. Snow peas have flat pods with small, undeveloped flat peas. Sugar snaps, which are plump with fully developed peas and edible pods, are a cross between English peas and snow peas. In French, both peas are called mange-tout (pronounced mawnzh too), meaning "eat it all."
Snow peas' curly tendrils, which look like pigs' tails, act as the plant's arms, reaching up and grabbing hold of nearby plants or a trellis for support. The tendrils are also tasty — toss them in a salad or add to a sandwich (like sprouts).
Where did snow peas get their name? Some say it's because they sprout very early in the spring and occasionally get caught in a late spring snowstorm.
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