The only time I tried favas I soaked them for a day, then cooked them for four hours, the starchy inside was soft as a cloud, the ouside was still like rino hide, so they went into the trash. I tried to grow them last year but got a late start and they had only made it to 12" tall by the end of the season, but they are a bush bean and as a result don't need support, although this year mine (planted a few weeks befoire last frost) have grown to 18" or so, no flowers in sight, and a few little tiny tendrils, not attaching to anything though.

I grow them, they are generally a cool season crop. I find the best result is to pick them when they are about half formed, shell a bunch, microwave / steam for 3 - 5 minutes, salt, EV olive oil, and snarf.

Last year I had a bumper crop, with somewhere around 20 lbs of shelled beans. I blanched 'em and froze them, they seem to me to be too bitter. This year I only planted half a lb of seed (Windsor) and that seems to be about enough to get a couple dishes a week out of.

I have never grown favas, A co worker likes them and wondered if I had ever grown them. He prepared some for a shift meal they were great. I will say it is work. He blanched them then we peeled the tought skins off and ate them with some salt and olive oil. They taste identical to limas but are a lot more trouble since they have to be peeled. I did a little reseach and have found that they are a cool season crop and I decided to try and grow some since I have plenty of space in the off months. When would you plant them in the south? I have read in the fall for spring harvest and also in the spring same time as sweet peas. My problem is in South Carolina we plant English peas around thanksgiving for April harvest. These are an old heirloom variety local to my area and are not bothered by freezing temps they are good but not as sweet as some of the newer types. The modern sweet peas or English peas are planted in Febuary. So when should I plant the Favas? and is there varieties that do better planted in the fall then those that are planted in Feb? any comments? Rodger

Rodger, that heirloom southern sweet pea sounds mighty interesting. I presume you have at least a few hard frosts at some point in SC, it stands them no problem? Remarkable.

My folks garden in north florida (probably about z8.5, can frost until easter), I wonder if it would be a good variety there? Spring fluctuates between hot days and cool nights so much that regular late winter-planted sweet peas don't do great.

Here in z5, I plant them on Good Friday along with the sweet peas, and they seem to do pretty well with temps down around 25-26º for a few weeks in there, and a light frost for a few more weeks.

One thing you might look into, buying seeds in 1/2 or 1 lb quantities is far more economical than the small packets, particularly with a large seeded variety like Windsor. They seem to keep well for at least a year, which would allow you to experiment a bit with planting times. But temps down in the high 20ºs shouldn't even make 'em blink.

The sweet peas I grow have been passed down for generations, and everyone around here plants them. We call them English peas and these are said to be the original peas brought over by our ancesters from England in the 1700's. these peas are traditionally planted on thanksgiving day. They come up and grow to about 6inch high. Then they just sit as if not growing at all through the winter I've seen temps in the teens and heavy snow but it doesn't bother them. in Late Feb when the days are warming they start to grow again and by mid March they are blooming and start picking late March. We still get frost sometimes till the first week in April but it doesn't hurt them.

We lived for a while in Mexico, at high altitude. Actually, for the first 5 1/2 years we were at 7,500 feet in a cool rain forest climate. Favas were a main crop there. In that cool, wet and long growing season I saw favas reach up to 5' in height at times. But I do believe that some of that was genetic.

Later we moved to 5,500 feet elevation in a desert area with irrigation. Temps were higher, but still fairly cool at night. Favas were not normally grown there. But we tried them and they did very well during the cooler months. They were shorter in growth habit at this lower elevation.

I tried to grow a few in NJ back in 2002. They needed to be planted earlier than I did, like peas. They didn't like the summer heat and hardly produced at all.

There are two ways of eating favas in Mexico; and they are a popular food there. The first is to harvest the seed when it is still green, like a shell bean, and cook it as a vegetable. The second is to let the seed mature, peel it (they actually sell fava bean peelers in the market if you are in the right part of Mexico), and then cook the dried bean. It will pretty much turn to paste/mush when cooked without the skin. But the skin is way too tough to eat. This paste is then stuffed into different kinds of corn based breads (one is called a tlayoyo, or gordita). If the peeled mature beans are cooked in soup they basically dissolve, thickening the broth.

The fava bean has a very distinctive flavor. It took our family a while to appreciate them. But we love them now.

George

Known as broad beans over here and a staple of most vegetable gardens. They do not vine and if they are flopping over they just need a string run up one side of the row and down the other with a pair of sticks each end to hold it up. Unless you are drying them, the beans are best eaten young about 1/2 to 3/4 inch long when the skin will still be tender. Feel the pod because if there has been little rain you can get a big looking pod with very small beans in it. Older beans will need skinning after cooking. Very young ones can be eaten pods and all. Height depends on variety and also on whether the plants were drawn up by lack of light. The description 'bush' is a little misleading as they do not branch. Each seed will put up one to fourish stems from which the leaves and flowers grow directly. I am curious also about the reference to tendrils. I have never seen a tendril on a broad bean, although you may get little pointy bits on the terminal pinnate leaf. I usually grow Aquadulce sown in October/November to go through Winter about 2 -3 inches high and then successive sowings of Masterpiece Green Longpod from February every three weeks to May. This gives beans from late May until late July in an average year. This year we had a bad spring and they are very late. First picking not until June. I have grown Burgundy ones and, although pretty on the plant, the yield is lower than the green and they are green once cooked. The flowers are very fragrant and a broad bean patch is delightful in full bloom. Broad beans have an affinity with butter, bacon and parmesan and are also good cold in vinaigrette. Pests here are mice (digging up the seed and eating it), black aphids, flea beetle (nibble notches in the leaf edges), chocolate spot and rust. But generally they shrug off most problems and usually produce a decent crop.

I grew them one year and didn't care for the flavor at all.

Maybe I'll try them again to see if anything's changed.

If you grew purple fava beans, I am assuming you grew one of the Italian varieties (there is an early purple one that is really good). They should grow three feet tall. If you have a long cool season, you can pinch the tops twhen they get three feet or so high and they tend to send off side shoots and you get a real bumper harvest.

Try picking some small (before the additional 'shell' forms around the bean. Just shell them, cook them a minute or two & dress with olive oil. Mighty good.

Bill MCKay

The fava beans grow like the lupine flower plant and the lupini bean. There are many kinds: middleastern round, green,Pourtugese brown, Guatamalan purple . good luck !

In San Diego, where there is a real cool growing season, I could plant favas, peas, greens, and carrots in fall and have them mature in early spring. In the PNW, it is better to plant them with peas starting in Feb. I like them best when fully formed in the pods, say 1/2" x 1" beans. I find that when cooked, it is easy to bite the end then squeeze the bean and pop it right out of the skin into my mouth. When soaking dry beans, after they have softened up I have cut them in half to peel the skins off. I had some Armenian neighbors who couldn't believe I was growing fava beans and had to cook some for me. They cook they small immature pods like green beans, and cook them in several changes of water with I believe baking soda? in several of the changes. I personally didn't see the merit in that because I like the beans really developed as they remind me of mealy lima beans from my Southern childhood.

Here in the northwest, lots of people grow favas for a cover crop; plant in mid to late summer and winter over (we have fairly mild winters). I've never tasted them, but plan to try them as a cover crop this year.