Called Fava beans in North America. Here I refer to them as broad beans.
Their plant family is the Fabaceae, which includes all the beans and peas we eat as vegetables. In this same large family are lentils, peanuts, soy beans, acacia, mimosa and wisteria. All these plants can convert air nitrogen to nodules of nitrogen. You see these as pink clusters on the roots of plants when they are growing strongly.
Harvest period
- Days from seed to harvest: 110 spring-sown, to 200 autumn-sown
In climates of winter frosts, they survive as small plants, at temperatures as low as -8—10 °C/ 8–14 °F. At those temperatures, and colder, some cover is worthwhile: mesh is better than fleece because it’s stronger. Snow protects them too. In temperate climates harvest is mid-May to early August, say late spring through to midsummer. It’s possible to harvest broad beans in late summer and even autumn, but the harvest at that time is light, compared to the time and space needed.
Later harvests mean plants have used the main part of a growing season, compared to early or pre-winter sowings. They are cleared in early to midsummer, which makes it easier to plant and sow again with another vegetable.
Why grow them?
Broad beans are mostly eaten shelled from their pods when green and fresh. They lose moisture and also sweetness with any lapse of time after picking.
Therefore freshly gathered homegrown broad beans have excellent flavour – if you have not eaten them before, do have a try. They are not too difficult to grow.
Unlike other vegetable beans, broad beans are frost hardy, and you can sow them in late autumn which means they crop early in the summer.
Therefore:
- They are exciting! You enjoy early meals of vegetables with fruits of summer-like flavour, after the root vegetables of winter and leaf vegetables of spring.
- There is time after clearing the old plants to grow a serious amount of vegetables in the same space. Examples include broccoli, cabbage, leeks, carrots and plenty more.
Suitable for containers?
Broad beans are large and hungry plants, with a high proportion of leaf and stem compared to the amount of food produced. This makes them probably not worthwhile to grow in containers, although you could try small varieties such as Robin Hood (see below) and The Sutton.
Follow with:
From overwintered bean plants, cleared in early summer, you have almost every option of what to grow next. Spring-sown beans mature later, so there are fewer options!