A hardy bean, useful for sowing in November to produce early plants which are ahead of the aphids. The pods are carried pointing upwards...Read More and are delicious when picked young and eaten whole. The beans are also tasty when shelled from more mature pods and the dark green beans steamed.
With all broad beans in order to avoid aphids it is good practise to pinch out the growing tips of the plants once the beans start to set. This reduces soft young growth that attracts blackfly. The tips are delicious cooked in a similar manner to spinach - but have a flavour all their own.
Thanks very much for sending seed via a round robin Baa, the photos I have added are from your beans.
I enjoyed growing and eating these. The plants are quite weird looking -- sort of like miniature palm trees, with these large protruding ...Read Morepods all around. But they grow in cool climates. You can plant them along with your peas. Fresh favas really do taste much better than canned or frozen. The flavor is difficult to describe -- quite different from any other bean. You don't get a huge amount of bean for your square footage, as each short plant produces only 8-10 pods, and each pod has only a few beans which become smaller once the bitter second skin is removed. But they're still fun and easy to grow, and wonderful to eat (just make sure you're not allergic to them -- especially common in people of mediterannean descent). They do tend to flop over when they are mature. To prevent this, you can stake them, or corral a bed of them with twine wrapped around stakes placed at the corners of the bed.
San Francisco, CA (Zone 10a) | January 2004 | positive
While I am aware that certain persons will experience an extremely bad reaction when consuming fava beans, the same could be said of pean...Read Moreuts and many other food crops.
This seems more like a dinner party host problem than a gardener problem. If you are serving fava beans, please inform your guests and ask them if they have had them before. If they have not, encourage them to taste just a little.
If I were to note any negatives regarding the plants' culinary aspects, it would be how much work it takes to get them to the table. Shell, blanch, shell again, then finally cook. Whew!
In any case, they have an unusual and unique flavour. Closer to black eyed peas or perhaps fresh soybeans; but, with a subtle charm all of their own. A little goes a long way.
They are a great green manure winter cover crop in mild climate areas and will survive freezing temperature. They fix nitrogen at a good rate and have an edible crop. They are large handsome plants with flowers pollinators love. And, if you keep harvesting the beans, there is no way they could become invasive, unlike vetch or some other cover crops.
Note: Fava beans have a noted toxicity for thalassemia sufferers. Consumption of these beans can bring on severe anemia in people with a...Read More severe form of thalassemia (Hemoglobin H disease). FYI.
Editor's Note
A small percentage of people suffer from 'favism' (Glucose 6-Phosphate Dehydrogenase Deficiency, or G6PD) ,which is an allergy to the 'fava' or 'broad' bean.
For someone with severe favism, exposure to the pollen of fava beans can cause a reaction, as will consumption of the beans. Symptoms include tiredness, fever, headache, abdominal pain, nausea, and vomiting. If left untreated, favism can result in serious health problems, like a coma.
We tend to err on the side of caution in PlantFiles, and the danger notation in the details above is to warn gardeners, parents, and pet owners to look further for more information.
An ancient food and fodder crop, probably from the Mediterranean originally although remains of the broad bean have been found in Egyptia...Read Moren tombs and prehistoric sites all over Europe. It was a valuable crop and is still widely eaten in many parts of the world today.
If you've tried shop bought beans (some places call them Fava or Faba beans) and didn't like them, grow some at home and try them just after harvest, they taste much better!
It has many uses in many countries and is often divided into subspecies according to country and use. Technically its not even a bean.
Has fleshy, glaucous, mid green/greyish, ovate and lanceolate leaves borne on square sectioned stems. Bears typically pea like, white flowers with black/purple blotches usually in the centre of the flower. The flowers are very scented and attractive to early nectar seekers. The oval or kidney shaped beans are in flattish, leathery pods.
Flowers April-May although it depends much on when you plant the seeds.
Will grow in any soil as long as it isn't too acid or waterlogged. Prepare beds over winter with well rotted manure or compost.
Sow from February-end May, there are varieties which can be sown in November but the plant isn't very hardy and the crop will suffer in harsh winters. Protect seedlings from hard frosts. Sow monthly from March - May for a successive crop.
Make double trenches, 2 inch deep and 2ft between every set of double trench, the 2 trenches in the double should be about 8-10 inches apart.
Broad beans have dwarf (12-18 inch tall) and standard varieties (upto 4ft) so staking may be required for the standard varieties.
Water when the flowers appear and if dry water well when the pods form.
Harvest spring sown crops at about 14-18 weeks from sowing, small pods (3 inches long) for cooking whole or pick when the bean shape appears in the pod walls. On the bean there will be a small scar which should be white/greenish, if it is darker it is well past its best. The beans will need to be shelled at this stage for cooking.
The crop doesn't keep well so use up harvested beans within a week or freeze them for later use.
Blackfly is a major pest on broad beans and will ruin a crop, to prevent this, sow as early as possible and pinch out 3 inches of top growth as the pods form. This will also ensure an earlier crop.
Beetles can burrow into the beans, don't sow or eat any beans with holes in.
Botrytis can also be a big problem pick and burn any infected pods to prevent spread.
Worthy a mention outside of the normal broad bean because it was saved from extinction by the Henry Doubleday Research Association's Heri...Read Moretage Seed Library. Just 4 seeds were rescued from a crop and sent to the HSL for propagation. Its been very popular ever since, its one of a long list of delisted heritage vegetables in the EU.
Produces a small crop but is also a good early flowering plant. Sow and grow as Broad Bean.
A hardy bean, useful for sowing in November to produce early plants which are ahead of the aphids. The pods are carried pointing upwards...Read More
I enjoyed growing and eating these. The plants are quite weird looking -- sort of like miniature palm trees, with these large protruding ...Read More
While I am aware that certain persons will experience an extremely bad reaction when consuming fava beans, the same could be said of pean...Read More
Note: Fava beans have a noted toxicity for thalassemia sufferers. Consumption of these beans can bring on severe anemia in people with a...Read More
An ancient food and fodder crop, probably from the Mediterranean originally although remains of the broad bean have been found in Egyptia...Read More
Worthy a mention outside of the normal broad bean because it was saved from extinction by the Henry Doubleday Research Association's Heri...Read More