St. Patrick’s Day and the spring equinox is almost here. One traditional way to celebrate the “green” is to plant your peas. Looking around New England this year, the garden is just not ready for them. But we have a solution – plant peas inside to harvest as shoots. You may have seen these fresh greens at the markets or on the menu of your favorite restaurant.
It is extremely easy to grow these sweet greens right on your windowsill without any additional light or heat. You can even purchase a micro-green kit that suction-cups right to the glass of your window. Choose an edible pod pea seed such as Sugar Ann or Dwarf Gray Sugar.
Start with any container that will sit comfortably on your windowsill and is at least 2″ deep; it does not even have to have holes in the bottom.
Fill the container with moistened seed starting mix, not garden soil.
Scatter the seeds thickly over the top of the soil in a single layer; do not worry if they touch each other (I placed these seeds far apart to photograph them as they grow).
No need to “plant” the seeds; just press them firmly into the soil and water them in with a “rose” end waterspout or a spray bottle.
Remember to water your seeds (or spray them heavily) every day from the top—you do not want them to dry out.
In about 2 weeks you will have ready to harvest pea shoots. You can harvest at 2-3 inches or allow them to get 6+ inches tall when the stems become entangled together. Some people say you can get a second harvest from the same planting if you allow the lowest set of leaves to remain when you cut the shoots.
