The most amazing thing about broad beans I actually only learnt after we finished with them for this year: they are one of those miracle plants that not only give food to us, but also to the ground they grow in. They fix nitrogen into the surrounding soil, an all important nutrient for all plants, making them a must feature if we want to grow food sustainably, by building a healthy and thriving soil for years to come.
This knowledge really helped me look at beans and legumes in general with more love than I ever thought I could afford for these plants. You see, I just never particularly liked eating beans, and that’s really after trying all the different varieties there were available to me. In my family they were always treated as a poor (and frankly tasteless) cousin of meat, because they contain lots of great protein. We eat them ‘cause their good for us’. With one exception: broad beans. How is it that while other beans repel me, broad beans make me drool? I can’t explain it otherwise than thanks to the way we ate them as children, which is how we now eat them with my children. The simplest way in the world, but more about this later. For now, here’s...
How we grow them:
We sowed 3 seeds directly in our no-dig raised bed back in November last year. Two have come up and quite happily overwintered in situ as small plants (one seed was apparently not viable, or got dug out, not sure). Then in February we planted two more. The November sowings did flower earlier but when it came to harvesting, the time lag of the younger plants was very insignificant - a week or two at the most. The older plants did however seem more susceptible to or maybe preferred by the black aphids, which attacked in May, before the ladybirds managed to appear and take care of them. This was despite snapping off the growing tips to prevent the fly from having somewhere to land.
With all the conundrum this caused, our plants were nevertheless able to produce healthy pods of lovely beans through May and June, enough for three harvests that fed our entire family in the form of a tasty side dish. Unlike our garlic, which really surprisingly succumbed to the aphids completely (a story for another post - see below). Because I was too blasé about the aphids and took too long to start dealing with them, and because they multiply so quickly, I subsequently struggled to remove them completely from the beans and so eventually they did cause the plants some hard injuries (see photos below). That’s when the time came to cut them off at ground level and add to the compost heap.
Lessons learnt:
Deal with the aphids as soon as they appear and while there’s only a few of them!
If sowing in autumn, protect with a cloche of some sort to minimise weather damage, as that will affect the strength of the plant and it’s ability to do well despite pests.
Beans are sensitive to the soil drying out - water as necessary.
How we eat them:
Now here’s the yummy part. You may be surprised to learn (just like I was) that there’s more than one way or one time to harvest and enjoy broad beans, and it’s not just the beans you can eat. I recommend watching Charles Dowding’s Youtube video on the topic (I get no commission for saying this, I just really find his work so helpful in demystifying growing food; Liz Zorab and Huw Richards are the other main inspirations).
So this year I’ve tried eating the young shoots/growing tips as a salad (was okay), eating small young pods whole (not for me, thank you...), eating small young beans (too tart for my liking) and finally eating mature broad beans (bingo!).
We give them a light cook for 3-4 minutes with a knob of butter and a bit of
salt, over medium heat in a pan. It brings out all the sweetness and helps the more bitter shell of each bean crack and slip, revealing the green nutty flesh inside. The ultimate comfort food, for me they are the legume version of pistachios! And we enjoy eating the shells, too!
Have you tried growing broad beans? Is there any other way you’d eat them? Looking forward to reading your suggestions!
Comments