What: Sugar snap peas

Season: Now

About: These purple specimens are a tasty variety of this commonly found pea. The thick-walled purple peas offer the same crisp snap and sweet flavor of their green counterparts. The only real difference is the color. Sugar snap peas are a fun summertime treat. The sugar in their name denotes the sweetness of the peas. You can eat the entire pea, pod and all. The sugar snap pea is in between an English pea, which must be hulled before eating, and a snow pea, which has a very thin pod that can be eaten. Look for peas with bright color (be it purple or green) and look for a plump, crisp-looking pod. “The New Food Lover’s Companion” recommends refrigerating in a plastic bag for up to three days.

Preparation: The beauty of sugar snap peas is in their easy eating. Grab one out of the bag and munch away (or better yet, pick a pod straight from your garden). The end that was attached to the plant isn’t edible, but you can just use that as a handle to facilitate eating. To my mind, sugar snap peas should overtake baby carrots as the go-to veggie to put on a crudite platter. Raw snap peas will also add sweet crunch to any salad. You can keep them whole or chop (but note that chopping will lead to some of the peas falling out of the pod). Sugar snap peas can also take the heat — just not too much. I recently added purple snap peas to a simple stir fry with rice, egg, toasted sesame oil and garlic. The key was to not cook the peas too long. The purple peas retain their color while cooking, but they may also bleed their color onto other items (my rice gained a nice purple hue).

— Alandra Johnson, The Bulletin

Produce purchased from Agricultural Connections, which distributes goods from regional farms (www.agriculturalconnections.com).

A weekly look at produce at local farmers markets.