<grumpy>
And another thing. What’s the deal with peas at my local supermarket? And at every other supermarket I’ve ever been to? You just can’t get raw peas. I don’t mean those stupid sugar snap pea things. I mean normal everyday peas. Inna pod. I happen to like raw peas, but I see no way to get them at all in my area.
Peas are one of the easiest damn things in the world to grow, you drop one on a windowsill, it will probably sprout and grow half a plant without even any soil. So it can’t be very difficult for local farmers, can it? But the only peas I can buy are in a can. Bah.
</grumpy>
You just need a better grocery store. My local store (Wegman’s) carries a bunch of different varieties of fresh peas, including regular peas inna pod. Of course, Wegman’s carries pretty darn near everything, so maybe I have unrealistic expectations.
Frozen (raw) peas hold up very well, and are available in all major grocery stores. I suspect you could just run them under water in a colander and defrost them fairly quickly if you want to snack on them.
Canned peas are awful, or at least they were five or six years ago, which is the last time I can remember eating them.
Check your local area for a Farmer’s Market, where unshelled produce can be bought out of stalls and backs of trucks once or twice a week; but be warned, though, as the old Grandmothers who remember and prefer fresh farm produce will be there 8am sharp and swipe it all up.
Check the newspaper to see if there are any farmers nearby that advertise “picking your own” prices per bushel of produce. Oftentimes older farmers would rather just let people on the land and break their backs instead of hassling with getting up out of their easy chair and doing it themselves. Be warned these can be scams if you don’t know prices (like 30-40$ a bushel, which is way over market value for almost any produce, plus the cost and time you spend picking it).
I wasn’t actually expecting anyone to reply. This thread is actually more conclusive about workplace boredom than the actual boredom thread…
Simply defrosting frozen peas didn’t occur to me at all.
Anyhow, yeah, I suppose there must be a farmer’s market around someplace. I just don’t know of any offhand. Are peas harvested all summer? No idea. But (pause for google) who knew: http://www.massfarmersmarkets.org/t-membermarkets.aspx – there’s one in my town, I’ll go check it out on Saturday.
Wegman’s and Annie Difranco are the only decent things to come from the Rochester/Buffalo area. Here’s a supermarket that gives you free decent coffee on a Sunday morning so you can spend extra time browsing and buying stuffs.
Until just last week, I have never eaten fresh peas. At least not knowingly. I’m used to having the frozen stuff. I’ve had canned only once ant it was disgusting. The texture is mushy and the flavour is gone.
Got some fresh peas in their pod at the farmers market. There isn’t a grocery store in the area that carries them.
Vegetables are generally blanched before they’re frozen, so thawed frozen peas are unlikely to taste like raw peas (not that I’ve ever tried-- sounds unappealing). Maybe rehydrated dried peas?
Peas are not blanched. They’re harvested at the peak of freshness and immediately flash-frozen to very low temperatures so they don’t stick together. Your bog-standard peas are one of the few vegetables that tend to be better frozen. Delicious frozen peaness!
Frozen sweetcorn is also quite palatable, but not as good as fresh when it’s incredibly cheap. Frozen berries are delicious, but the texture suffers as they’re frozen too slowly to maintain it, so they’re only good for sauces and smoothies.
