@UnicornEmily, according to Cornucopia II (Stephen Facciola) both seeds and seed pods (while young) are edible. No mention of leaves.
As far as I know, all parts of the broad bean are edible. There are cultivars specifically bred for the pods, eaten like green beans before seeds develop, sometimes called snow beans. Leaves (the soft new growth) are quite nice mixed with other greens.
I think so? If Emily’s planting now in 7, I feel like I did the right thing this weekend. Though I didn’t germ test them before planting, and they showed a little bit of hull damage but otherwise intact.
I would have expected overwintering lentils wasn’t possible here but for this post which made me think I should give it a go. Our winters are a good deal tougher but we’ll see what happens
This is my first time growing lentils, so I’m no expert, but they’re often used as a cover crop that’s sown in the fall after harvesting summer crops, so I figure now’s a good time to plant them!
Speaking of which, I know it would have been ideal to have big, tall winter crops before now, but:
a) I did plant a bunch of winter crops two months ago. Nothing germinated until a month ago, and most of them still haven’t germinated. The temperatures were probably too hot. And there was no rain.
b) This is our first week of heavy rain! Which means the ground is soaked, and yet there are very few insects around to eat all the seedlings. We’re probably a week-ish away from our first frost, and our first frost usually comes a month or more before our first snow.
I’m seeing peas germinating this week that have sat in the soil for two months. So I think this is the right time to be planting more winter crop seeds.
Young leaves are edible when cooked. I’ll regularly pinch the top of the plant when it has cca 3-4 sets (levels) of pods and eat them in various cooked meals, from fritattas and stir frys/sauteed style dishes to green veggies side dish and adding to stew types…
I can’t really say, except general leguminose type of taste, I’m putting at least several different veggies in and add some herbs… and never use much of fava tops in one dish
If you cut off the top and eat it, will that stop it from growing taller and flowering more and setting more pods? Or by the time you cut it off to eat, has it already gotten as tall as it’s going to?
Yes, when you cut the top plants stop growing (in height) and put all their energy into developing seeds. That’s why I cut them after particular plant has enough pods, for me that’s when they have three sets (levels) of pods and another set of flowers. This gives me enough beans/seeds, shortens total growing time (due to small garden I need to free space for next round of seeding/transplanting) and additional stuff to eat.
I find the shoots of lentils not as nice as other Fabaceae. The aroma is leguminous, but they’re pretty astringent and the texture is more tough. I’ve only tried them raw, maybe they would be better lightly cooked. For raw, I think there are better alternatives. Broad bean shoots are quite nice for example. And of course pea shoots.
That would depend on genetics, I believe, my plants have an average of 3-4 beans per pod and on one level I can have 2-4 pods. Mine fava’s are for the most part traditional variety/landrace grown in this region for generations, but I know there are some of those uniform varieties that have more beans per pod (like 6 or 7).
