I love broad beans, especially early in the year when they are tender... I do go off them a bit when the waxy skins are tough and you have to skin them.
Actually they are totally excellent when picked and cooked young ( before the beans have developed), Like young runner beans, just wash whole, slice and boil or steam for 5 - 7 minutes. Toss in butter and crushed black pepper, yummy! If you only have a few plants you might consider this wasteful but I grow lots.
Spring planted broad beans - what can I say? This year I'm trying a new variety - Danko ( new for me and new for Dobies) early with small beans. I'm hoping the early variety will miss the ubiquitous blackfly.
I really prefer autumn sown broad beans. It really doesn't seem to matter which producer/variety, as long as it is suitable for autumn sowing.
Until a couple of years ago I had disappointing results with germination ( of all varieties of beans), not greater than 25 to 30%, which is dismal, to say the least. I was listening to an Alan Titchmarsh programme ( can't remember which one). The question was asked from someone who was having difficulty germinating beans and, as I was having the same problem, I perked up my ears. He suggested ( almost as a casual, throwaway remark that we should not attempt to sow them straight into the ground - we should chit them on wet paper first, then plant into pots. Plant on when the young plants have developed).
Okay, I thought, this is worth a try ( well! what I was doing was not working). I did as advised. About 90% of the bean seed sprouted and I planted them up in small pots. I then planted them out in November and covered with fleece. I had 90%+ success with the plants, early broad beans and absolutely NO black fly.
That said, I'll still have-a-go with the spring sowing, if only to extend the season.
I'll come back to this subject later when chitting/sprouting summer beans
Do broad beans make a good chutney or pickle? If so, do you have any recipes?
ReplyDeleteI haven't tried to make either chutney or pickle with broad beans. I did make a mustard pickle (like picalilli) with young runner beans though, to be honest I didn't really care for it.
ReplyDeleteI went to a lot of trouble, a couple of years ago, drying my excess broad beans - 1 lot dried without the waxy skin and another lot, leaving it on. However, they were really not my favourite dried beans and I ended up using a jar of them as 'baking beans', that is - when baking pastry cases blind - they were excellent for that :0) Shame, it was a lot of effort.