Grow – Cook – Make

I’ve been waiting for this moment since September 19th, the day I put those seeds in the ground. Six months it took those plants to give me good sized beans. Six months!

I am trying to figure out the best time to plant favas. I tend to plant them too late for our climate, February, even March. It then quickly turns too hot for their liking. I end up with sickly plants and the nagging thought that if I had just been quicker to plant, I would’ve have had a larger harvest. Well, no more, this year I planted in September. Now I will know what happens if I am diligent and plant in the fall. Actually, I planted another batch in November and one more in my habitual February date. I will be able to compare and choose the better date in order to have a plentiful fava harvest every spring.

So far I have the feeling that September is too early. These plants have been blooming for months now, with not a bean in sight. Intense fragrance but no fruit. They seem to be day length sensitive because all of a sudden they got busy with fruit production. I am rushing to conclusions, though, I really need to wait and see what the other two fava patches will do.

Here they are, ready to be brought into the kitchen. I am hungry, I want dinner now and favas take a while to peel. I generally double peel them. I take the seeds out of the sheath, briefly blanch them and pop them out of their inner peel, the loose skin that covers every seed. I am too hungry for double peeling, it takes forever. I’ll just cook them peel and all. They’ll be good too. Less refined, more rustic, but tastier. With some caramelized leek and a handful of mint… Delicious!

This entry was posted on March 30, 2010 at 12:38 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.