So...pea tendrils.

I've seen them in seed catalogs--plants that over produce the slender green stems that the plants use to attach to climbing structures.

They looked interesting enough, but I wanted my plants to focus on producing peas, so I never tried any of the seeds. Well, my CSA included a small baggy of them in my weekly bag and I decided to try them last night.

I was making a stirfry with beef and the veggies I had: onion, garlic, carrot, bell pepper, and zucchini. The pea tendrils basically smelled like peas, so I thought they'd have flavor like peas, but a different texture.

Um...the texture was really different. It was like I'd spent time stringing beans and then decided to eat the strings. They didn't add a lot of flavor that I could tell, but just added some unchewable fibrousness to the mix. I pulled out as many as I could, but I had unfortunately chopped them pretty fine.

I was able to eat my meal last night, but I made a good bit, planning to have leftovers for a couple of days. I sure hope I haven't ruined a wok full of food.

Have any of you tried pea tendrils with better results?

I had a similarly unsatisfying experience with pea shoots.

My friend Pat loves pea shoots. I think I remember her making a salad that included them. It was good.

When I saw pea shoots in the list of veggies that Farmer John grows, I marked them with four or five stars in my preferences so I'd be likely to get some. A bag of them appeared in my CSA box and I was really looking forward to trying them.

They were much larger than the ones I had at Pat's, much too big to be considered shoots. The stems were fibrous and inedible and the leaves were quite large and chewy. I stripped off the leaves and sauteed them like greens, and composted the stems and tendrils. Meh.

I wondered if Farmer John just didn't get around to harvesting them in time and they grew a bit too large. In any event, I changed my preferences to zero stars so I don't get them anymore.

"tendril" is not a word with an appetizing sound.

Our CSA is more low-tech. We don't give them input and they just send what they send.

I looked it up and pea tendrils are the same thing as pea shoots. Mine had few to no leaves, though, just many-branched stems that I thought were dill when I first opened the bag.

It sounds like you and I had the same experience.

I'm pretty open to most vegetables, but I really do need to be able to chew something and I prefer that it doesn't have the texture of the stuff I usually put in the compost.

quote:

Originally posted by CHAS:
"tendril" is not a word with an appetizing sound.

I was okay with "tendrils," but the actuality was more like "fibrous strings."

Vegetables for the instant gratification generation.

I spent a whole day on our farm picking them for a goody bag of ingredients.

The trick is to get them when they are very new, above the first flower and use them asap. They are best used in combination with other greens. I throw them in fritatas.

For us as a farm, we plant peas as a cover crop and it gives us an extra use of a crop that normally would just be ignored.

quote:

Originally posted by Mary Anna:
Our CSA is more low-tech. We don't give them input and they just send what they send.

Farmer John implemented software to handle preferences a few years ago; he's moving to a different system next season. Not sure why he's switching; the current one is pretty robust. Maybe it's a matter of cost.

You're presented with a list of veggies that he'll grow during the season and you rate them:

I love it
Like it
Sometimes
I'll eat it
Not for me (means the product will not be added to your share)

You can change your preferences any time.

Each cycle (once every two weeks) you get an email that lists what's going to be in your box based on your preferences and what they've harvested.

You have a day to swap things around if there's something you don't want, or that you want more of. Some swaps are no cost, some may result in a charge, and you can sometimes buy additional stuff if it's available.

It's a highly flexible system and results in each shareholder mostly getting what they want.

It's pretty cool.

I have had stir-fried pea vines in Chinese restaurants and found them quite tender and tasty.

I've never tried to cook them myself.