These lollies are healthy! - Apr 30, 2011
Kids love eating lollies but they hate eating vegetables. Imagine if you could find a vegetable that tasted like lollies. Well that vegetable does exist and it is called a Snow Pea.
These are extremely expensive to buy in shops but they are so easy to grow at home and it is the easiest way to get your kids to eat vegetables. Snow Peas look like a normal pea pod that has been run over with a steam roller. You don’t shell these peas because the pod tastes just as good as the peas.
They are a great healthy snack for the kids and they taste even sweeter when picked fresh off the vine.
Snow peas are one of the easiest plants to grow so you don’t have to be a gardener to have success. Simply dig some cow manure into your soil until it is friable. Plant the snow pea seeds 5cms apart and water daily until the seeds emerge. This takes 7 to 10 days.
Snow peas are a vine so grow them up some wire that is attached to your fence. If you’re growing them in pots use some stakes and wire to make a teepee. They will grow about 1.5 metres high.
In around 6 weeks the plants will start to produce pretty white flowers followed by peas. The longer you leave them the bigger they will get.
Send your children out to pick them and they will happily eat them. This is a great way to encourage your children to eat other home grown vegetables too.
If you live in an area that gets heavy frosts then postpone your planting until spring. Snow peas can also be bought in punnets from your local nursery if you want to save time.
Tim Pickles is a CNP horticulturist and director of Tim’s Garden Centre 2 Queen St Campbelltown. 46267022.