When winter has faded and the seed catalogs reviewed, I am itching to get the spring vegetable garden started. There is a little thrill in removing the remnants of the winter vegetable garden, then beginning again with new seed varieties and old favorites.

So many little things draw me back to childhood and my most dear memories, like the taste of a tomato, picked from the vine on a warm summer day in my grandmother’s garden and eaten out of hand. 

As a child, the only peas I wanted to eat were the ones growing in my grandmother’s garden—straight off the vines. Now, as an adult, I appreciate the work that she put into growing English peas; the per pound yield was a precious commodity.