Are Favas a Favorite?

[digitS']

Why not favas? I grew them once, about 15 or 20 years ago.

The English have fava beans, or as they call them, broad beans. The French, Italians, they are grown in east Africa, China - what is keeping them out of your garden?

They grew really quickly and strong in my garden ... and then were attacked by aphids. I was caught off-balance, probably forgot the sprayer a couple of times and then decided they'd gone round the bend. My idea was that I had sown the seed a little late and the heat just set 'em up for the aphids.

Our bean experts may correct me but favas aren't beans as we think of green beans or lima beans. They can take quite a bit of cold weather and should probably go in with the early peas.

I can hardly remember how the fresh beans tasted but there is a favorable memory, if nothing more. How about you, do you like favas? Grow them?

Steve

 

[PhilaGardener]

I have grown favas with mixed success. In mild areas (not our climates - think England) one can plant in Fall and get an early crop. For me, they don't make it through, so I start early in the Spring with my earliest peas. I've had awful aphid issues like you described. Haven't given up but am waiting for the right variety to come along. Maybe you will find a good one and share with us

 

[Smart Red]

Never tried them unless they were in a soup at one time or another. Now I suppose I'll have to give 'em a try.

 

[Smart Red]

Never tried them unless they were in a soup at one time or another. Now I suppose I'll have to give 'em a try.

 

[joz]

They're very tasty, but prep in the kitchen is a PITA.

 

[digitS']

Here is what Kitazawa Seed says about their Aquadulce: "Sweet and tasty broad beans or favas beans are a staple of Mediterranean cuisine. When harvested very young, the whole pod can be cooked and eaten. With later harvests, the beans must be shelled."

I'm not sure that I knew that the pods can be eaten. I bet the pita you are referring to, @joz , is shelling them twice. I seem to remember that. Each seed has a shell that can be peeled off.

Windsor seems to get wider sales in US companies but Thompson and Morgan has a dwarf variety. Stokes carries Aquadulce in various size packets.

This was the year I was supposed to grow mung beans (looking at the Kitazawa catalog reminds me ). I'm not too sure why altho I've done some sprouting and always like to see them at an Asian restaurant . Maybe that species would be an idea for the Garden Legumes for Laying Hens thread!!

You know, almost any veggie can be useful as livestock feed. What is usually grown for critters these days is what works for mechanization harvest. Garden varieties offer greater pounds per square foot but more handling ...

Favas may be looked on with a degree of American prejudice. Calling them horse beans reminds me of cow peas. Let's not forget that bread and meat was what was thought of as proper food in 19th century US of A. ALL vegetables were looked on with disfavor. The nutritionists and many immigrant groups have helped get us past that craziness for some time now.

Steve

 

[PhilaGardener]

One reason that favas may not have found a wider audience is the incidence of favism, a metabolic reaction to the ingestion of fava beans, that occurs among some individuals of Mediterranean or African descent. As @digitS' mentioned, these are some of the same areas where favas historically are grown and enjoyed, so this should not prevent one from trying them - just sample cautiously at first.

 

[digitS']

Thank you, @PhilaGardener .

This is different from the antinutrient concerns of nearly all legumes in cultivation. A genetic predisposition ...

With cereal grains such an important part of the human diet, I sometimes wonder how celiac disease and intolerances have come to be.

So, "Symptomatic patients are almost exclusively male" and this is due to X-chromosomes rather than male Y-chromosomes ... so, men catch this from women ..?

Steve
still dark at nearly 7am and who will likely be off gathering nuts by May!

 

[PhilaGardener]

So, "Symptomatic patients are almost exclusively male" and this is due to X-chromosomes rather than male Y-chromosomes ... so, men catch this from women ..?"

Like red-green color blindness, the allele (gene version) responsible for favism is located on the X chromosome, so it is called called a sex-linked trait. Females have two copies of X (like the other 22 pairs of non-sex determining chromosomes, also called autosomes) whereas males have one X chromosome and one Y chromosome. Thus X-linked recessive traits show up more frequently in males because they only have one copy of X-linked genes (while in females two recessive alleles are needed before a recessive phenotype is observed). No contagion involved

 

[Hal]

Best grown as a cool season crop where I live, you plant them late summer to bloom before the weather gets too cold for pod set or plant them so they flower just temps get high enough at the end of winter or start of spring to initiate pod set. I grow Crimson Flowered as it is good to eat and ornamental as well.