This is my Super Gourmet Salad Mix patch. This has been the best lettuce patch I have ever grown. I have eaten many fine meals from this patch. This year I had beautiful nasturtiums to add to the lettuce. Those little peat pots starts that I had doubts about surviving have now bloomed into lush, hardy plants. The best nasturtiums I have ever grown.

June Peas

"The summer crowd is here and it is well along in June and the sailboats are out on the lake. Mrs. Brubaker has already sent out invitations for her Fourth of July dance. The farmers' fields are green; some crops have even been harvested, while you were still dreaming of spring. You pass trucks on the highway bulging with freshly picked pea vines and reach out in passing to help yourself, popping the lovely raw peas into your mouth from the pods, while the driver, expecting this ritual of early summer, grins a greeting."

I remember reading Edward Harris Heth's description of summer's beginning for the first time many years ago. It is when I fell in love with his cookbook, "The Country Kitchen Cook Book." He paints a memorable and charming picture of every season before sharing recipes using the seasonal ingredient that makes each month of the year unique. Without realizing it, he has greatly shaped my approach to cooking. He succeeded in creating a delight in preparing food and relishing food as it comes through out the year. I wonder if Barbara Kingsolver read Heth as a young woman? Unfortunately, Heth doesn't offer any creative idea for using the abundance of peas I find myself blessed with. Eating them raw off the vine is good and creating stir fry with some is yummy, but I need a way to use up more. I wonder if I could make pea pesto?