Hi to everyone, I’m pleased to be a part of this focus group!
I grow favas in Finland at 61.5°N. I started out in 2022 with a mix of 35 accessions and landraces, about 10 of those being from NordGen seedbank. Since then, I’ve added seeds from Going to Seed US and members of this group.
Main selection is for earliness: early autumn gets rainy and humid here, so many seeds will rot quite quickly if left out too long. It works best if I harvest pods individually as soon as they turn black and dry out, rather than wait for a majority to turn black.
Overall, I’ve been surprised with how much the appearance of the population changes from year to year. The amount and variation of ‘purples’ has increased over the years. I had very few to begin with (they were black at first), but now count around 15 variations (although some variation is probably due to non-genetic factors). Will Bonsall refers to the purple tannin or anthocyanin as a “cellular-antifreeze” which helps them germinate in cooler soils… so it would make sense as I had been planting them “just after the snow melts”.
Thus far, I have been trying to keep as diverse of population as possible, though I’ve started to grow a separate low vicine/convicine population. It seems favas with white hilums (and/or pure white flowers) tend to have less of the anti-nutritional (and bitter) VC compounds; but, at the same time, it seems that higher levels of vicine account for increased yield… sooo there are some tradeoffs. Also, the commercial seed industry in Finland already does this kind of breeding, so I will likely continue to prioritize overall diversity.
Some 2025 colors:
Variation in 2025 ‘purples’ (dried seed/hard to photograph but I tried):
My ‘starter packs’ in 2022:
Link to cool broad bean book (we could make a euro-version someday):