Peas on Earth

I've just discovered peas! Before this week, I had no idea how much fun they could be! I wish someone had told me about them earlier.
Of course, I was aware of their existence - I'm seventeen, after all - but I only ever saw them in dishes and on plates; cooked on their own or in stews and curries, added to risotto or pilau, braised with lettuce and onions in the French style, or with ham and artichokes in the Spanish. Sometimes they were frozen, or tinned as "mushy" peas to go with fish and chips. When it's the season for English peas, Martin uses them in soups and pasta dishes, sometimes combining them with lemon zest and mint. So far so boring - I thought they were just another form of the green food that humans eat with inexplicable relish.

However, I experienced something of a revelation the other day, when M was busy peeling potatoes and asked Annie to shell the peas. She did this in the living room, sitting on the sofa and watching television, and this allowed me to get a close-up view as she split open each pod with her thumb and pushed the bright green bullets into a bowl. It was absolutely fascinating! She had quite a rhythm going - reaching into the bag, squeezing out the peas, throwing the empty pods into a second container - and I found it rather hypnotic. I could see my reflection in her spectacles, and noticed my head was moving in a triangular pattern following the movement of her hands between the bag and the two bowls for shelled peas and discarded pods. I knew I must have looked pretty silly, but I couldn't help it. Then - oh joy - when she wasn't looking, I managed to flick one of the little green jewels out of the bowl, onto the sofa and then to the floor, where I chased it all the way to the fireplace! I would have chased it some more, but it fell down a crack between the floorboards. I went back to the sofa to get another one to play with, but she'd finished the task and had taken the shelled peas into the kitchen, where M had them simmering in a pot with some shallots and chicken stock before I could tell him to stop. What a waste! There must have been about two hundred peas in that pot - enough for literally hours of entertainment.

So now I'm keeping my eye on the bags that come into the house from the greengrocers and the farmer's market, not to mention Tesco's and Sainsbury's. There must be a few more weeks left in the season, and I want to make the most of any raw pea action while I can!