Grow Better Veggies

Fava Beans: Lots of Uses

These gorgeous fava bean flowers (broad beans to some of you) are edible.  Not only can you eat them, you can enjoy eating them.  That's important in an edible flower, as Renee Shepherd once said when asked about such things, "There are a lot of edible flowers; whether or not they're tasty is another thing."

Fava beans have a lot of wonderful purposes in the garden.  They are a great cover crop.  You can sow them in the autumn here in coastal central California, and while they are growing all winter and early spring, they are improving your soil.  They do this by "fixing nitrogen."  That means that they somehow grab hold of the nitrogen in the air and infuse it into the soil.  The roots also improve the texture and "tilth" of your soil as well.

You can start cutting the tops of the favas after they get about four or six inches tall.  The tender greens can be used in salads, soups, or stirfried.  When cut down to a node (a point at the stem where a branch juts out), the fava will then grow two shoots to replace the first one.  When you do that, you get a bushier plant and ultimately more flowers.  And of course, when you get more flowers, you get more beans.

After the long fava pod forms, you can eat the interior bean as well after it's been shucked.  Eat it raw when small, cooked when mature, or even dry it for reconstitution and cooking later. There are few plants with so many uses.  They also look lovely in the garden!

How About a Portable Veggie Teepee?

My previous post about the Painted Lady Runner Bean prompted me to talk a bit about the teepee I've planted them on.  I plant 10 or 12 bean seeds in each large 15 gallon black nursery pot.  I use good potting soil (not garden soil). The beans must be kept moist at all times while germinating.  They take about a week to poke through the surface, depending upon the weather.  Once up and growing, I  remove all but the strongest 6 plants.

The pots are arranged in a circle of eight, with a teepee of tall bamboo arranged around the pots and attached together at the top with twine.  The bean vines eagerly scamper up the bamboo. 

I love the pot teepee.  You can take it down in the winter and store it if you don't want to grow a cool weather climber on it.  You can set it up anywhere: on pavement, gravel, rooftops, or in other hard to handle areas, such as fertility-deficient soils, virus-infested soils, or gopher-ridden areas. You can also move it between seasons, to maximize the differing sun conditions between the summer winter gardens.  You can see I've got mine set up on mulch.

The teepee is also a great idea for renters, who may not want to make the financial commitment of building permanent garden beds.  I have heard from upset renters who have carefully and expensively nurtured vegetable gardens only to have to move out when the landlord must reclaim the property.  The disappointed tenants bemoan leaving their precious gardens behind, unharvested and unrealized.  The portable veggie teepee can be moved (perhaps not fully laden with 100 pounds of beans, but certainly the pots, soil, bamboo, and carefully cut-back plants to their new garden spot.

Other suggestions for what to grow on a portable garden teepee are: edible snow peas or fragrant sweet peas in cooler weather, cucumbers, smaller melons such as Charentais, gourds, or mini pumpkins.  Remember that the bigger the fruit, the less plants per pot.  Growing larger vining fruit on the teepee requires attaching the vines carefully to the teepee as they grow.  A bit trickier, but what a show-stopper!

My other tips would be frequent watering and fertilizing with a good all-purpose organic liquid fertilizer, and don't make the mistake of using pots smaller than 15 gallons!

Painted Lady Runner Bean

I sowed my Painted Lady Runner Beans directly in large 15 gallon pots on June 1. We have lots of beans here at the farm, of assorted colors. Usually we grow them for the pod, of course, but this cultivar is special.  It was planted only for the edible bean flower, rather than for the pod.

What's wonderful about vegetable plants, is that a lot of their flowers are edible.  Such is the bean.  Their flower tastes just like a bean! Their colors vary, too.  Most are white, but purple beans have purple flowers.  All bean flowers are edible, but this one has two colors (white and red), which makes it showier in edible flower dishes.