Just wanted to share what I found out the hard way. I picked all of my avalanche snow peas a little too early. I had read that I should pick them before the pods started to swell with peas. As soon as I could see the peas through the pods, I picked them. I had a decent harvest but the taste was just OK.

Once my flowers stopped showing and I had a couple hundred pods left on the plants I decided I would let those go to full maturity so I could try to save the seed. Of course since there were so many, I snacked on a few here and there as the days progressed. To my amazement, the visible peas inside did very little swelling and the pods continued to grow, basically doubling in size and thickness from where I was picking them.

The taste became much nicer also, as the sugar content must have been increasing, and the pods had much more crunch to them. I figure I could have at least doubled the weight of what I picked, maybe more. And even now, with the peas swelled to what I imagine is about 50% full, they are still very delicious.

I guess I don't understand why these should not be allowed to swell up with some of the delicious peas. Since they are my peas, I'm gonna let them swell from now on... Any one else with similar experience? Any good reason to not let them engorge a bit?

CH