Fava Beans
by Janet Richards
On July 18, I harvested the remainder of my fava bean crop. Some people plant favas as a cover crop; I plant them because I love the way they taste–especially fresh. It’s even worth the trouble of double peeling them (more about that later).
This is the third year I’ve planted favas and, even though I didn’t plant more plants than before, it’s my most productive year so far. Each year I’ve planted 17 plants in late February, rotating the garden bed. I direct sow and place a small plastic jug that is open on the top and bottom over the spot and a stake next to it. The jug keeps out slugs when the plants are young. The stake is for tying up the plants when they get tall. Favas grow nice and straight, but once they start to produce pods, they can fall over and break. I plant the variety “Aquadulce” from Uprising Seeds in Bellingham.
From those plants, I got four large harvests of favas, each time enough to make a salad for six adults. I had the bonus this year of my two granddaughters helping me take the beans out of the pod. They are both 20-months old and this was certainly their first fava-shelling experience. Emma dutifully picked out each bean and put it in the bowl for later processing. Chloe picked out each bean and dutifully ate it! With no ill-effects, I might add.
Every year I have aphids visiting my favas. The first year, I sprayed them off with water, but the plants looked a little ragged afterwards. This year, I had a hefty infestation on just one plant. Ants were herding the aphids and the entire top half of the plant (about 4 feet tall at this point) was completely covered. I decided not to intervene but observe. A European paper wasp spent a lot of time in the early days gorging himself on aphids (this is a good reason to leave any wasp nests alone that you find in or near your garden. Paper wasps are a gardener’s friend). I noticed a wasp on several days, not necessarily the same wasp. Later, a group of ladybugs moved in and were also well-fed. Many aphids remained, but the plant continued to thrive, even producing pods that I later harvested. Fava skins are so thick, that the beans were unaffected. It was interesting to me that the aphids remained on that one plant and didn’t spread to the rest of the crop. Since I got what was for me a bumper crop this year, I didn’t mind sharing the plant with the aphids. I’m not selling favas, but even the pods that had been covered in aphids didn’t look that bad after the aphids had been eaten or dried up and blew off.
Here is how I prepare fresh favas: Take the beans out of the pod. Plunge the beans in a lot of salted, boiling water. Boil for a few minutes (two to four minutes depending on the size of the beans). With a slotted spoon, remove the beans to ice water. Let them sit in the ice water for a few minutes. Then you can pinch them right out of the second skin. They come out bright green, usually split in half and should be a bit firm.
One year I tried freezing the beans after I had blanched them. When I got them out of the freezer to make a salad, I boiled them for just a minute to be able to get the skins off. No luck-they were mushy. They were still tasty, though, and made a delicious hummus. I’ve included a few of my favorite recipes.
Fava-Fennel Salad
(adapted from Simply Recipes by Elise Bower)
1½ to 2 cups prepared fava beans
1 small fennel bulb, thinly sliced
(you can use a mandoline)
2 green onions, sliced
10 fresh mint leaves, thinly sliced
2 oz. of Parmesan cheese, sliced
(I used grated)
Olive oil
About 1 Tbsp lemon juice
Salt and Pepper
Combine the favas, fennel and onion in a bowl. Drizzle olive oil over and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Toss to mix. Squeeze some lemon juice over the salad, mix, then add the Parmesan and mint.
Fava-Farro Salad
(adapted from the Living Healthy in Seattle blog)
The recipe called for chickpeas, which we replaced with favas, and it was a hit.
1 cup farro
¾ cup or so of prepared favas
Red bell pepper, diced
Cucumber, diced
Cherry tomatoes, sliced
2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
Fresh basil, sliced
Fresh Italian parsley, chopped
Mint, thinly sliced
Salt, pepper and crushed red chilis to taste
Cook the farro in salted water about 25 minutes, then drain.
Mix everything together and serve warm, at room temperature or chilled.
Fava Hummus
You can use your favorite hummus recipe and replace the chickpeas with prepared favas. Favas, garlic, olive oil, salt and lemon juice are the basic ingredients, then you can be creative and jazz it up.