SNOW PEAS

Often called Chinese pea pods, pea pods, Chinese sugar peas, sugar peas, or by their French name mange tout (which means, “eat it all”), these boat-shaped edible pea pods with their sweet, crisp taste have become perhaps the best-known and loved of all Chinese vegetables. They are wonderfully easy to grow—all you need are a few stakes, some string, and a finger with which to dig a little hole in the ground—and provide early summer satisfaction for even a first-time gardener. They can be planted before most anything else and flourish when the weather is brisk, hence the Chinese name “snow pea.” Seeds are widely available, or may be ordered through the mail.