A couple of years ago I spent a week looking for fava beans for a three bean salad recipe. I could not find them fresh, canned or dried. I went to 7 different grocery stores and it took me over a week to find them! It may have been that they were entirely out of season (though not really since they can be harvested as a winter crop) or it may be that there isn’t an appetite for them in my neck of the woods. Nonetheless it made me absolutely determined that this spring I would grow some. Because there is nothing yummier than fresh fava beans.
I spent most of the following winter trying to figure out which variety would be the best to grow. And wouldn’t you know it when my catalogue from Thomson & Morgan came in a varietal for container fava beans was featured on the back page! I guess I am not the only urbanite with a taste for fresh fava beans. The plan was to purchase the Satissa fava beans, but somehow when I went to Seedy Saturday I emerged with the Red Crimson fava bean. Given that this varietal grows to 3 feet, I figured if I put it in a big enough container it should be fine.
I knew that fava’s were a cold weather crop, so I started them early indoors. The little seedly grew and grew. It was this long snake of a stalk with a leaves sprouting every couple of inches. It was healthy but it seemed rather strange to me that it just kept growing long but not bushy – it kind of reminded me of the plant in Jack and the Magic Bean Stalk. I didn’t think that the Fava would like to be out in the miserable cold rain so I waited until the weather turned a bit drier and warmed before putting it outside. I didn’t really harden it or anything. Just repotted it up to its first leaves in hope of making it sturdier.
And then the weather did it’s thing. Frost at night. Boo. The once vibrant leaves wilted and became crunchy. Poor Fava.
Fortunately, Fava is way more hardy that I ever gave it credit for and RESPROUTED. From the same seed! No effort at all on my part, simply nature doing its thing. It didn’t grow very tall before it started flowering. And as promised by my google search, the crimson flowers satisfy my pretty vegetable flower criteria.
It took a while and quite a few damaged flowers but eventually I got one pod. One pod.
I’ve left them in the container over the winter. My hope is that the mild Pacific Northwest winter will not affect it too much and that it will self-seed and then I can take that little plant and put it in a bigger container and hope for more pods.
Though all of this is on hiatus until I move at the end of the month and I am left simply looking at my plant and wondering if it will last that long. I think I may start a spare fava bean seed just in case.
Accidental Green Thumb 