I picked a few more fava beans (Vicia fava) today. If you've never grown favas, I think you're missing out. They're not only easy to grow, they're also very delicious.

Fava beans, one of the world's oldest cultivated crops and native to the Mediterranean region, are also known as broad beans, horse beans, pigeon beans, and the like.

Fava beans are cool season beans. They are sown early in spring or late summer, as they do not grow well in warm weather. 

I plant mine in late summer or early fall, they grow through the winter with hardly any effort on my part.

They lagged a little this winter due to lack of rains, but when the rains started coming around February, they had their growth spurt and soon they were flowering in my front yard - white, sweet fragrance greeted visitors as they walk towards my front door.

When I first started growing favas, I grew them only for cover crop in the winter. Fava beans, being in the Legume family, are capable of fixing nitrogen.

I tried eating the leaves one year. Another time, I tried the whole pods. Then more recently, the bean itself. I've acquired a taste for it and I like it. But It should be noted that some people of Mediterranean origin have a genetic trait (enzyme deficiency) that causes a severe allergic reaction to fava beans.

Lucky for me, I' m not allergic to fava beans and I look forward to planting more and eating more of this delicious and nutritious bean in the years to come.

Meanwhile, I better start planting some warm season lima beans, and transplant my 2 six-packs of beans from the Solano Community College plant sale. One can never have too many beans.