Recipie: Grilled Snow Peas

Want to impress your better half? Take them to a farmers market on the weekend.
Then cook for them.

Ahhh, summer. It means so many things my stomach. Drinking outside, cooking outside, shopping outside, eating outside, wait I see a theme. So in my constant effort to combine as many of the above actions as possible, I made a trip to my local farmers market.

Summer also means peas are nice and fresh up here in the N.E. because they're in season. Season? Yes, even though the giant industrial food machine has done its best to one up mother nature and erase the whole idea of foods growing during a certain time of the year thing, it still exists.

Today we all live in a world where one can have any type of produce at any time of the year. I think its a little out of control. I mean really, do you honestly think it's responsible to put peas on a jet in Guatemala and fly them to your local supermarket? That makes about as much sense as offering massive tax breaks on ridiculously inefficient, obscenely heavy vehicles that in the event of an accident tend to kill anyone not driving one. Oh, wait...

I love hummers too you know...

Lets get a little local
Buying locally is a good idea, it reduces the amount of energy used to get the food to your plate. A Boeing 727 cargo jet burns around 1250 gallons per hour of flight. More on take off, landing, idling, but let's not split hairs. The flight from Guatemala is about 4.5 hours so that's 5625 gallons of super refined, JA-1 aviation fuel used, just in the air. There's lots of trucks involved too, loading of the airplane, moving of containers, that's a lot of energy for a pea, huh?

Waiting for things to be in season increases your appreciation of them. It can also create more responsible practices by our food producers. If you don't demand beef all year round and wait until the winter, producers might just let them eat grass all summer. That would be good for the planet, and your taste-buds.


Gastroliaison's Grilled Snow Peas
The snow pea is an immature pea. Picked early, its pods are tender and delicious. Get nice green ones that snap crisply when you break them. Wash them and eat them right away, they won't last more than 2-3 days in the fridge (in a plastic bag).

Throw them on a hot hot grill, about 3 minutes per side till they get nice charred spots on them.

Sprinkle with a nice sea salt, like fleur de sel, and viola!