The black and white flowers are sweet, slightly nutty with a fresh bean taste.  The flowers may be enjoyed in a wide-variety of salads and other savoury dishes, and make attractive and tasty garnishes.

Edible broad bean flowers have a wonderful light, nutty flavor, taste like a cross between fava beans and pea shoots. with a mildly sweet flavor akin to spring peas. Fava edible flowers are beautiful, edible, and tasty in their own right. The tender flowers can be used in salads, soups, or stirfry.

Broad beans are a good source of protein, fiber, vitamins A and C, potassium and iron. Broad beans offer one of spring’s best seasonal flavors. The fresh beans can be eaten steamed or boiled. As the beans mature it is better to remove their tough outer skins after cooking.  The leafy top shoots of the adult plants and eat them in salads, steam them or add them to stir-fries.

Fresh Fava beans are often prepared with other spring vegetables, such as peas, asparagus and morel mushrooms. Their mild flavor and unique texture adds character to salads and soups. Fresh fava beans can be pureed into spreads and served as appetizers. Pair with fresh herbs, sheep’s milk cheeses, citrus, pastas, cream or wine-based sauces, young greens such as spinach and pea tendrils, bacon, lamb and seafood.

Late season fava beans will become more filled out and starchier requiring a second peeling of the outer bean and cooking the beans, either by blanching or braising. Immature beans can be canned or frozen. Dried fava beans are common and are treated like most dried beans, soaked and cooked low and slow.

Fava beans, botanical name Vicia faba, are also known as broad beans, field beans and Windsor beans. They are a hardy constant grown as a yearly and often used during crop rotation and specifically utilized as ground cover to preserve the soil and reduce weed growth. The broad bean produces a delicious and abundant food crop.  In addition, it is also extremely useful as a soil improver, a nitrogen fixer.

Broad beans grow best in sunny locations, but they will tolerate some shade.  It is a good idea to provide some support for your plants are they grow taller so that they don’t fall over – stake them with posts and/or string. 

Broad beans ripen from the base of the plant upwards.  For the most tender beans, harvest them before the pods have fully developed (when the pods are 75-100 mm long).  After you have harvested all your beans, cut down the stems and leaves of the plants but leave the roots in the soil – their concentration of nitrogen will benefit other crops.

Fava beans are one of the oldest crops known, with archeological remains found in Israel recording their cultivated origins as early as the Neolithic period (6800-6500 BC). Their cultivation spread along the Mediterranean into southwestern Asia and Africa, along with companion pulses such as chickpeas and lentils. Fava beans are now cultivated in over 50 countries, preferring cool seasons and temperate regions similar to that in which they were first cultivated. There is no known wild ancestor to the Fava bean.

Fava bean pods are thick with a cottony interior encapsulating 2 to 7 large lemon lime-colored beans. The   beans are tender, with a sweet, mild grassy flavor reflective of spring. The beans are similar in shape to a lima bean, plump and curvaceous. The bean’s skin is thick, and their texture can range from starchy to creamy depending on how young they are and how they are prepared.