Fresh Peas

Garden fresh young peas are at the top of my favorites list.  Local farm stands sell local strawberries, tomatoes, squash and corn but never young peas.  We watch the development of our pea crop carefully.  Harvest is completed during the cool morning hours.  Processing quickly follows so that flavor is at its peak when the peas are committed to the freezer.  Garden space is insufficient to allow us to grow a full years supply but we enjoy what we can put by.

A recent tour of our garden flushed out a baby bunny rabbit.  It ran through the side of my protective   2" X 4" wire cage like it was not even there.  That baby rabbit had full access to our entire garden.  Nothing was safe from this munching baby.  His brothers and sisters must be nearby.  Clearly action was necessary.  The next evening the baby bunny was again spotted.  I turned toward the house to get the gun.  Over my shoulder I saw Becky bent over the rabbit shooing it into the tall weeds at gardens edge.  Once the rabbit disappeared into the thick weeds I had no chance of finding it.

Dead snow pea vines caught our attention.  That baby had eaten a path through the end of the row.  A diagonal cut on the vine is without question from the bite of a rabbit.  Here the damage was minor but we discovered  an entire row of pea plants that had been felled by rapidly growing ravenously hungry babies.

No harsh words were spoken but not all of my thoughts around this loss were pure.  I quickly came to understand that life with this gentle bunny saving person is great in part because of her gentle nature.  The image that fills my mind now is not that row of dead pea vines heavily laden with crop but the sight of Becky waving her hands over the rabbit's back as she walked it to safety.