The resilient gardener, a years worth of food, self sufficiency

That does sound really tasty!

Thatā€™s so interesting, thanks for sharing!

Iā€™m eating a lot of pulses these days, and just a little meat, currently itā€™s fine for the blood sugar issues I was having with too many potatoes and squash.

So Iā€™ve been coming to the conclusion that favas are my best year-round excellent protein source for my climate. This year I grew common bush beans, pole beans, runner beans and favas. This October has been cold and damp, so Iā€™m struggling to dry out the summer beans even enough to shell. Those pods just staying damp without running a dehumidifier, which is kind of rediculous if I have to depend on one.

But for Favas I can grow them year round. They mature and dry out during my dry season. Thatā€™s like duhā€¦ but I struggled with liking them, (so I was in denial for years) I donā€™t like peeling that extra layerā€¦ wasnā€™t a big fan of the flavor of them cooked after being driedā€¦

But now Iā€™ve had some delicious dishes and decided I need to face reality. I have not one, but two bean cookbooks! So all the other beans I can grow for fun and seeds and a few meals, but long term I need to figure out how to have favas in various stages of growth all year long.

So any fava recipes send them my way! I am about to plant a bunch more.

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I eat the shoots of favas (broad beans, here in the UK, or sometimes field beans, though field beans are much smaller) as microgreens over the winter, and the very young whole pods in stir-fry in spring. I find a few of the mature dry ones in stew is just fine but I donā€™t want a pile of them on a plate.

If you like falafel made with chickpeas (garbanzo beans in the US), or if you like hummus for that matter, it might be worth trying these with fava beans. I strongly dislike chickpeas, but carrot sticks in a broad bean hummus is pretty good.

The one dish I will bother to peel broad beans for is smashed broad beans on toast with feta cheese and olive oil and mint. So tasty!

I have seen them sold roasted as a crunchy snack, but Iā€™m not sure how to make those. Presumably cook them, drain them and let them dry a bit, stir through some oil (and salt and pepper) and put them in a hot oven until theyā€™re crispy ā€“ the same way as making roasted chickpeas. (I tried to like chickpeas. It didnā€™t work very well, but I will eat them roasted. I will try again in another few years, but they donā€™t grow terribly well here anyway.)

You didnā€™t mention lima beans (Phaseolus lunatus), which might be worth a try too.

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If you have an Arab store or restaurant nearby go try some Ful medames. Its what turned me on to fava beans. Some folks say it dates back to ancient Egypt, but written accounts trace it at least as far back to the fourth century. It makes a very hearty breakfast with fresh warmed flatbreads before heading out to the fields.

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Oooh, this sounds amazing!

Have you tried them immature? Personally I eat them all at immature stage and store in freezer. No need to peel although some might have little tougher skin. I havenā€™t tried them dried besides what processed stuff you get in stores, but I would think taste is better young. Kinda beanie pea teste. I would think picking them early also gives plants extra energy to grow new pods.

Are garbanzo beans any good in your climate? I believe theyā€™re a winter crop, so they may do well for you year-round, just like favas. What about lentils and peas? I imagine itā€™s nice to grow lots of pulse species in order to have a variety of flavors.

Heh, you saying you needed to face reality really resonated with me. Thatā€™s how I feel about my unfortunate discovery that Iā€™m probably better off without eating cheese.

@MarkReed I donā€™t usually pay much attention to nutrient profiles either, because who cares? As long as Iā€™m balancing protein, fat, sugar/starch, and fiber, and Iā€™m eating a lot of different things, the vitamins and minerals will probably be fine. But I seem to be extremely prone to anemia, so iron content is something I think I need to start paying careful attention to.

Iā€™d love to trade seeds with you sometime! And I can totally empathize with losing a lot of crops to herbivores ā€“ our earwig and roly poly populations this year were insanely high. I was planning to focus on green beans and drying beans this year, and I barely got any.

Ha ha, good luck collecting that fur hat. Maybe you can enjoy rabbit stew, too! ā€œYou eat my protein, you become my protein!ā€ kind of thing. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

Good ideas for all those recipes, thank you! I will try smashed on toast today :slight_smile:

I tried some from Mark Reed, they grew 6" and never made beans, looked like i was torturing them. And that was a warmer year. This year in July it never got above 65F until August, I think Limas want more.

Good idea about the freezer! Because Iā€™m not too good at succession planting of them yet.

I grew them last year and got about as many as I planted, but I tried them as a summer crop. I will try again in the winter, thanks for suggesting. I do like to eat them.

They need more heat than other beans, thatā€™s why they are hard in cooler climate. Would love to try with some cool tolerant material, but itā€™s fairly hard to find even more than couple varieties and all of them are from way futher south.

I lived in Egypt for several years as a teenager. Love fuul medamis. Itā€™s a staple that you find everywhere along with what we call felafel sandwiches. They cook beans all night in copper pots and they dress with a little olive oil. Simple, nutritious and yummy. Goes really nicely with felafel and torshe (sp?) which are pickles made of everything and especially beets. Their pita bread also has more chewiness to it. More like a sourdough than the thin pita we have here.

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Each Middle East country, region or even city has their own Ful recipe. Interestingly, some mix favas with chickpeas, some donā€™t. Then, the spices - the one from Palestine is full of cumin and fennel, and from the egyptian city of Alexandria it usually contains sesame seed paste.

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Iā€™ve done a ā€œsalt and vinegarā€ version of this, also splitting them in half for crispiness. They are REALLY good. More in the direction of cashews or something. Plus the colours of a grex adds some elegance.

Preparation is quite slow though, so would need to develop some production line hacks to make it a reasonable sufficiency snack.