The Fava is King!

[PlainJane]

Consider adding these to your cool weather garden. In N. Florida they do wonderfully well as a winter crop.

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Flowering ... harvest ready ... just picked. (Along with some snap peas).
This is the commonly available Royal Windsor fava. I got 2 big pickings plus some strays.
Really flavorful!

[Julianna]

We have three totes of favas. They are great!

[bower]

They do look great! I'm often tempted to try them but somehow hasn't worked out in my garden plan as yet. BUT I got a fresh pack of Aquadulce this year, so we shall see where I can manage them.
My Mom has lots of space and she would actually love to eat them, but she's reluctant to let me plant anything that would require much work for her. Just watering is a chore she struggles with, so I'm not sure about peas there.
How about these fava puppies... do they need a lot of watering? Or can I let em survive by sheer determination (mostly) ?

[Julianna]

They do look great! I'm often tempted to try them but somehow hasn't worked out in my garden plan as yet. BUT I got a fresh pack of Aquadulce this year, so we shall see where I can manage them.
My Mom has lots of space and she would actually love to eat them, but she's reluctant to let me plant anything that would require much work for her. Just watering is a chore she struggles with, so I'm not sure about peas there.
How about these fava puppies... do they need a lot of watering? Or can I let em survive by sheer determination (mostly) ?

So in Jordan they don't irrigate and plant them in the winter to catch the rains. We had to water ours here, but we haven't been getting any rain. So i would say as long as you get regular precipitation, they will be fine.

[Amateurinawe]

I love them, nobody else in the family does so I get to freeze them and have them whenever I can. Especially good with some liver and a nice glass of chianti!

There are some wonderful Italian recipes with fava beans.I

I've always managed to pack them in tight together, aqua dulce is my go to. Do watch out for aphids thought and strike quick when you see them.

Agree above with the watering, never really bean an issue for me (pun intended)

[GoDawgs]

[mention]PlainJane[/mention], when do you plant yours in N. FL? I tried growing favas years and years ago and they failed, most likely due to gardener ignorance on timing. I have room for another fall/winter veg so thanks for the suggestion!

Hmmm, how much cold can they take?

[PlainJane]

@PlainJane, when do you plant yours in N. FL? I tried growing favas years and years ago and they failed, most likely due to gardener ignorance on timing. I have room for another fall/winter veg so thanks for the suggestion!

Hmmm, how much cold can they take?

[mention]GoDawgs[/mention] ,We had a few frosts (to about 30) half a dozen times but no solid deep freeze. I plant in November and harvest end of March/beginning of April. With a light blanket I’ll bet they can take mid 20s.
They do NOT like heat, and I find they need a fair amount of water once they are setting pods.

[bower]

I'm wondering how early I can plant them. The ground is thawed but we're bound to have a few frosty days ahead. LFD here is early June. If they tolerate frost as young plants I would go ahead and get em in.

[Growing Coastal]

I plant them in February when there are lots of frost days left. They always do fine.

[PlainJane]

[mention]Bower[/mention], if by frosty you’re talking high 20s/low 30s you’re fine to start them.

[bower]

Does anybody soak before planting? Or just put em out and wait.

[Growing Coastal]

I just plant. They can take some time coming up - 3 - 4 weeks for my Windsors this year.
A friend starts them in a small greenhouse then plants them.

[PlainJane]

I just plant out and wait, but no reason you couldn’t soak first.

[Amateurinawe]

MBH just bought one of those big American fridges and it is now pride of place in the kitchen. So, everything had to be sorted and moved from the old fridge freezer to the new and there was the usual "throw" and "keep" conversation. There was a bag of frozen fava beans from last years harvest that I didn't know we had - i think i will have some boiled and then fried with bacon bits this weekend....

[GoDawgs]

Well, that was a trip down memory lane! I just had to go digging in my garden records to see when it was I planted those failed favas. It was 1997 and I have no notes as to what variety they were or who I got them from. I do know they were planted on Feb 22, the same day I planted the peas. There's no note about what happened to them but back then I didn't keep notes to the extent I do now. In fact it was interesting to see how garden notes and maps improved along the way. Then there were some "Oh I remember planting those!" moments . What a hoot.

I think I will try a mid November planting. We can have some pretty warm spells in October.

Any suggestions from the peanut gallery as to a variety that works for you?

[karstopography]

I got a pack of Windsor Fava beans. Looking forward to trying these.

[peebee]

Well I'm glad to see this subject here. I'm trying favas for the first time now, but only 4 out of 12 sprouted recently. I examined the small pots that didn't & found either a rotten seed or nothing at all, probably melted from rot. Did I over water? I lightly watered about 3x a week or whenever the medium looked dry.
Started over, this time I put the seeds between moist paper towels & waited till they sprouted. And I'm not going to water as much. I remembered reading that with beans & peas it's best to water the seeds well at planting, but no more till you see green appear. Hope they grow! Go figure, when I threw cover crop seeds randomly in my garden before, the favas in the mix grew without any hassle. And I ate not a single one lol, cuz I turned everything into the soil before beans formed otherwise the cover crop plants wouldn't compost in time for spring here

[PlainJane]

@peebee Sorry about the seed failure. I’ve had 1 here and there fail to sprout but that must have been annoying.
I’ve got 2 bags poking up so I’ll start another bag soon.

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[bower]

I finally grew some favas this year. On the advice of local growers, germination can be really low in the field for us, like 50% or even less (one year none at all), so I sprouted them first and put the live ones into small pots for transplant.
I really noticed that germination was very reduced on the older seeds. Got no Windsors from a 2 yr old commercial pack and only a few really slow Aquadulces from my one year old pack. Some of the seeds had split seed coats - that's something I noticed in my seed saving this year too - and I decided not to keep anything with a split coat. I got close to 100% germination from a fresh pack of Black Russian.

I only kept a few plants to get seed and planted most at Mom's, so I didn't eat any of my crop. She ate some but didn't seem too enthusiastic. Said she would rather eat them as a dried bean, I have still to go pick and dry them for her.
I guess I need a proper recipe or two, for fresh and for dried favas.
We're not terribly clear about the right stage for harvesting in the fresh/ or fresh frozen approach.

[PlainJane]

The greens are edible too.
I harvest the pods when the beans are about half an inch, mostly because I can’t wait any longer.

I steam them in broth or water with a couple of crushed garlic cloves and a bay leaf.
I’ve also added to soups or stews just like you would any other bean.