Fava Beans are Fun!! I love fava beans, the way they grow so straight and tall with just gorgeous flowers.
Fava Beans, otherwise known as Broad Beans (Vicia faba) are in the Bean Family (Fabaceae) but are a different genus than pinto and kidney beans. They can be planted earlier and later than those Phaseolus species beans. Favas are often planted as a cover crop as they, like all legumes, can fix nitrogen with the bacterial nodules in their roots able to take nitrogen from the air and “fix” it into the soil for plants to use. So you are improving your garden soil, growing a beautiful flower and growing a hearty bean to eat, all at the same time. Favas are flatish circles, or can be small and round, and can be brown, yellowish, green or even this luscious deep purple, depending on variety. I plant them in batches in the early spring. They seem to take their time coming up, but it’s worth the wait.
Fava beans can be eaten freshly cooked, taking the beans out of their spongy pod. Some people slip off the skins on the bean seed, but I never saw the point, as I enjoy them just fine, lightly boiled and then slathered in butter. They can also be dried to preserve them and then reconstituted and cooked as pinto beans. My Mexican friend says they roast fresh fava beans until they are crunchy and eat them with salt and cayenne, like potato chips (los habas).
Some people have favism, a hemolytic response to the consumption of broad beans, a condition linked to a metabolic disorder. so be cautious if you haven’t eaten them before.
Terri Wilde
