Why are we growing chickpeas
Before I answer that question, I'd like to step back and talk a bit about kids' eating habits in the garden.
When children are in contact with nature and gardening from early age, they kinda integrate that knowledge - that there's always something growing that you can eat - and will act on it on every occasion.
I kinda suspected that and wanted from the first year of our new garden (2015) to include several plants that our boy, then 2 and a half, could try and potentially eat. Of course strawberries and other berries are the "gateway" foods to a life of eating directly from the garden, but I wanted something that's not necessarily sweet and possibly green in color ;)
One of the plants was asparagus and I've written at length about that. Another one was sorrel, with it's refreshingly sour baby leaves an year around treat. Of course we planted peas - Sugar Snap the first year, then we added Meteor and Golden Sweet Snow pea. Each was a huge success by its own, but including those three varieties allowed for a longer harvesting period.
What surprised me was how quickly the kids adapted to this new reality - if we're in the garden, there must be something to eat! So they're tuning into their inner forager :)
The peas won't last the whole summer, however, and we needed to fill a "gap" between peas and tomatoes and cucumbers. Carrots only wasn't going to cut it!
So that's how we came to planting chickpeas! They can be sown as early as the peas (that's early March around here), or even earlier, with the broad beans. They take longer time to mature and they don't need any kind of trellis or support, so it's very little work growing them. And what's most important, they can be eaten green, straight from the pods!
The kids turn everything into a game and that will never cease to amaze me! They gather the still green pods, count them, split them, take out the chickpeas, sort them by size, divide them equally, help each other and run around screaming how great chickpeas are... in the absence of actual peas.
Last year our big boy put all the chickpeas in the ground (5 rows). We also helped him plant onion sets around this 4 x 1 m large bed. The reasoning behind this is chickpeas start to ripen and dry at about the same time the onions do. So they both don't need watering the the last few weeks of their growth, as watering at that time would encourage mold.
After a slow start, due to colder weather, the plants rush up and start branching.
By early June, it already resembles a hedge and is in flower. That's a good time for a round of neem oil spray, as the weevils start to settle in the flowers, waiting to lay their eggs. Note the onion plants on the edge, growing just as all as the chickpeas, 60-80 cm at that point.
A month later still and the chickpeas are ready to be picked and eaten on the spot!
They start to form from the bottom up, so the kids have learned to give each pod a slight squeeze to check if a pea has formed inside and how large it is. It's self regulation at its best! They know if they pick a pod with a tiny pea inside, they'll "lose" a larger pea down the road.
And this year, we're growing a second variety - black chickpeas!
More of my gardening posts
- A garden is a school of life
- Slow and lazy compost
- Fruit tree herbal guilds
- Propagating currants
- Growing asparagus
To learn a bit more about my backstory, see my intro post. Also check out the blog of my wife and better half - Gerry.
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oh my i am so jealous of your amazing garden.... how amazing! I started vege gardening a couple of year ago, and although we have a large yard, it's all taken up with things that can't be dug up for vegetables. our large lawn is also the "drive through" area to get to the shed in the back.
This means everything has to be in pots. I have a big home made irrigation system that goes between from the water tanks. (we are in Australia and water is rather precious here sometimes.)
My daughter (she is 3) loves eating from the garden as well. She knows the names of plants at school and happily tells her Teachers about the school garden plants. They have a big vege patch and chickens in her school yard.
thanks for sharing i shall pop out and do some gardening right now :-)
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Sarah
Wow, a garden with chickens in the school yard! If we had that here, I might start getting second thoughts about home schooling!
Container gardening has its benefits and merits, I do find that constrains inspire creativity! Even though we now have a garden, for more than 5 years we've grown lettuce, radishes, carrots, basil and lots of other herbs on our office window sills :)
Thank you for your comment, I especially love that you've included a photo! Is t hat a tomato plant up front?
Yes that was a tomato plant that came home from school :-) they even have a worm farm in the school yard as well. I’m very happy with the family care she gets there. I have lots of friends here that homeschool. Yes we have veges inside too. It does limit creativity and actually costs more and more labor intensive. But at least we get home grown produce. The best year I got 300kg of produce out of them.
Nice job, did you get enough to make your own hummus maybe?
Oh we did hummus multiple times as well as cook chickpeas with vegetables! The kids eat about 10-20% of the crop while still green, but the rest is easily 2 kilos of dry chickpeas!
Thats nice!
I love reading posts about parents working to get kids interested in real food. The benefits are endless and the lessons life long. Great post, thank you! :)
oh love it! how cool and creative, dad! "gateway" plants... that's a great call. i have a friend whose kid (3 now) will eat most everything raw from the garden- things like garlic straight are nothing to him, even from when he is young! that always surprised me, but as you say, they're very curious and want to get their hands on things. i especially love this:
true garden literacy :)
As @powellx5 says in another comment, kids are usually not given enough credit. Of course we're there every step of the way, ready to help when needed, but letting them try and most importantly fail while supported eventually turns them into very brave and robust human beings!
Here in Virginia the local college (VT) is having farmers test grow chickpeas to see how they do here. The first couple of years have been mixed as they search for varieties less susceptible to mold, but overall they expect good yields and many farmers to switch to growing them. I'm told we need to grow these in the use as the popularity of Sabra Hummus has meant that we are importing a ton of chick peas since nearly 100% of them come from Mexico. Thanks for you post, it reminded me that I'd like to grow some.
Our first year chickpeas had some mold on them in some of the pods but then we read that you're not supposed to water them from a certain point onward and the problem disappeared! I hope you do try them in the garden!
I think a lot of parents, especially in the city, don't give their kids enough credit. They don't realize that their kids are capable of so much more in the way of skill, responsibility, self control and decision-making, than they're being given the chance to prove. Unfortunately, that means that many kids never get the opportunity to prove to themselves that they are capable and experience the confidence and the pride that comes with a job well done.
Your kids are very lucky to have parents who trust them to do a job, and allow them to reap the rewards of the work and thought they put into the job.
Thank you for your wise comment and kind words! We see eye to eye on that!
Dear @bobydimitrov. I have great respect for how you plan your gardening year around what your kids especially can forage for. This is such a great idea and extremely inspiring.
Strawberries and cherry tomatoes already grow in a bathtub in our courdyard and our kids are all over them, checking daily whats do pick. You definitely gave me many ideas how to fill the rest of the year. Very much appreciated.
Dude...cutest kids award?
There is such an award? Sign me up! :)
Thanks dude!
MMm I love chick peas too!
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