It was a pleasure to pick the first peas of the year today.  This Douce Provence plant has overwintered so is producing pods a good month or two before spring planted peas.

I can’t say the pods were as douce (sweet) as their name suggests though. They taste very slightly bitter.  Hopefully cooking will bring out the sweetness, as there are plenty more pods growing.

Alongside, the spring-planted peas are starting to flower, most notably the tall Blauwschokker variety.

Compared with the more usual white pea flowers, this German variety’s purple flowers are very eye-catching.  And pleasingly the bees seem to like them already, so pollination should go well.

The garden has been very lucky with bees this year, with lots visiting every day. To think we used to run away from them as children, yet now it’s so good to see them filling up with pollen from all the vegetable flowers.

Some herbs are flowering too and the bees seem to particularly like the chive flowers.  The frilly pink flowers are also edible to we humans and go well in a salad.

And I have the bees to thank for the strawberries, which are ripening by the day.  None are quite ready yet, but some will be within a few days.

So thank you bees. I hope you’re enjoying your feast as much as I will mine.