Greetings,
As I chop down our sad and overgrown favas, I’m feeling compelled to reflect on and celebrate these wonderful plants!
Growing the favas has been a fun journey. We direct sowed them in October and watched them grow from bitty seedlings to looming giants, fortified against the winds with tomato cages. Though the squirrels and rabbits end up munching on much of what we grow (including the majority of our snap pea crop!!), they tend to leave our favas alone. Other than the occasional targeted nibbling of the larger beans, the primary pest pressure that we encountered this winter came from the aphids. Fortunately, aphid populations can be managed with soap spray (we mix a bit of Dr. Bronner’s with water to make ours).
In addition to being relatively easy to grow, our lovely favas have proved to be quite versatile in the kitchen! Many are familiar with the bean; however, the leaves are also edible. They have a mild, bean-y flavor and are good either raw or cooked. I like to sauté mine with some butter, garlic, and white wine and then add them to pasta. The beans are also quite tasty. The skins of the larger beans are often removed, but I find this double-shelling process to be quite tedious. I like to harvest the pods when they’re smaller and the shell is tender. I use these unshelled, baby favas like I would green beans and can skip out on the labor of removing the pod and skin.
In addition to the favas that we planted to harvest, we also grew a few rows of favas as a cover crop. Favas and others in the legume family have a symbiotic relationship with Rhizobium bacteria that allows for from the atmosphere into the soil. When a legume is growing and its corresponding rhizobia is present, the bacteria will colonize the roots and form nodules or clusters of nodules which become the site for fixing atmospheric nitrogen (fun fact: the nodules can turn pink from leghemoglobin, same stuff makes the Impossible Burger “bleed”). To ensure that the proper rhizobia are present when growing our favas, we use an when sowing the seeds. Before our cover crop of favas puts energy into growing the beans, we chop them, cut them into approximately 6” pieces, and spread them across the bed to decompose into the soil as a green manure. As the chopped plants break down, they act as a weed barrier and they help retain soil moisture. These cover crops are a great way to feed the soil from which we constantly extract energy and nutrients!
Though it will be several months until we have favas growing at the Farm again, I’m excited for the rows of sunchokes and pumpkins that are replacing them!
Best,
Kate