Ralph its been years since I've grown Fava's so if you can trust my memory, here's my story: I planted them more as a winter cover crop for my small garden. They thrived all winter with only a bit of damage when temps got really cold (like 12 degrees). I thought they would be bushy bean type plants but they came up tall and skinny and pretty much stayed that way. In hindsight I should have planted them closer together. They didn't bloom until spring and didn't set pods until late spring/early summer. I didn't get enough beans off of them to make it worth the winter long care - so I never grew them again. I thought that their small size was due to my less then sunny yard (but it is pretty sunny during the winter). I also thought I would harvest beans in late winter and then yank them out and plant someone else. Their late bloom/fruiting schedule kinda threw me off - since space is limited.

My garden has a lot of bees with the most common being some sort of native bumblebee that is half the size of a normal one - I call them blueberry bees because I see them when the blueberries start blooming (some types bloom way early in my garden).

Fava's aren't related to regular beans and some people of Mediterranean decent are deathly allergic to them.