More Peas Please!

Finally! My absolute most favorite natural food snack is in season: sugar snap peas! (and garden peas too, although those are a little less sweet, but they're larger, and equally as healthy and yummy). Here's the thing, peas have an unusually short growing season on the east coast, just a few weeks starting in early June. I saw the first batch this weekend and bought a whole pound even though I knew these peas are likely not fully ripe and would be very small. I just couldn't help myself! But the inside scoop is that the first couple of batches are too young, and the last couple of batches are starting to rot, so your window of delicious perfectly ripe peas is really just about 2-3 weeks. So run run run to your farmers market NEXT weekend and stock up.

Aside from the fact that they're delicious, here's why you should eat them:

• peas are loaded with phytonutrients that provide key antioxidants and anti-inflammatory benefits.
• Peas are in the category of 'nitrogen fixing' plants and therefore considered environmentally friendly due to their ability to enrich the soil (they also don't need as much fertilizer and have a lower risk of pest problems than other plants).
• They have Omega-3's in the form of alpha-linolenic acid which provides us with fat soluble nutrients like beta-carotene and vitamin E.
• They are loaded with vitamin K, manganese, vitamin C, as well as several B vitamins.
• Peas also have protein and fiber, which slows down digestion and thereby helps to regulate blood sugar.
• They are sweet and starchy so if you love candy and chocolate, peas will satisfy your cravings and spare you a few rounds to the bodega for your candy fix.
• They are so diverse you can do anything with them, cook them into soups or stews, stir-fry with other veggies, or just eat them right out of the pod like I do!

Is that enough reasons? They're also just so darn cute, aren't they? For me, peas offer a sense of nostalgia of a brief and happy time in my childhood when I spent the summer with my grandparents in Latvia at their dacha where we had a wonderful garden and planted delicious fruits and veggies, among them peas. I used to load up a giant bowl of it and just sit on the porch enjoying the opening of each individual pod and using my teeth to scrape the peas into my mouth. Oh sweet childhood contentment. Anyway, enjoy the peas while they last, get to the farmers market!!