We've had an incredible spring this year here in northern Nevada with plenty of rain and cool weather for growing our springtime vegetables like peas, spinach and the various lettuces. For the garden peas, the pods ripen up the plant. For edible-pod peas, you can eat them at any time before the peas even begin to ripen.

If you've never grown peas -- either garden peas or edible-pod peas -- when picking pods from the plant, be sure to use both hands when detaching the pod: hold the stem with one hand, pull the pod off with the other. If you don't support the stem with your hand, you can easily pull the entire plant out of the ground. Unless this is what you intend, as by the last harvest, it's easiest to simply uproot the entire plant. This makes picking easier and also creates space for new, more heat loving plants to grow.