Thursday, July 15, 2010

Broad beans

I feel rejuvenated...no we did not go fishing but we did spend some wonderful time with my sister and brother in law, a few relaxing days at the cabin, and a few days playing in the garden, wonderful.

My sister loved going into the veggie garden for our dinner...hmmm! what should we have??? Zucchini? Swiss Chard? Or how about some broad beans? She picked broad beans, AKA fava beans. This was the first time I grew them and they are a keeper, in fact I will likely increase the number of seeds I put down next year.





Broad beans, once picked and shucked, need to be blanched for just a few minutes, then drop into an ice bath. Once cooled the tough outer skin needs to be removed. I sauteed the beans in a little bit of butter....ok lots of butter....and ate them as a side dish. They are very tasty and delicate and the color is amazing, you really must give these a try.



3 comments:

Anonymous said...

It sounds like you had a nice vacation. The beans look good.

2 Tramps said...

The beans look delcious. Will put them on our list to grow next year. Thanks and glad you had a good break.

Powell River Books said...

It was so good to see you up the lake at your cabin. I'm glad you had a nice relaxing "vacation." It was nice meeting your sister and brother in law.

My eggplant died so I used some old bush bean seeds from my stash and stuck them in the pot. If they survive the heat while I'm gone I may get something. At least with the warm weather they started fine in my peat pellets. I've found if I pull off the netting and plant them before the roots get too big they transplant fine. The first ones I let get too big before transplanting and they didn't do very well.

Do you save any of your seeds for planting the next year or do you purchase new every year?

Margy