Broad beans

Broad beans, Vicia faba, are the only bean crop we’ve grown successfully on the croft as common beans, Phaseolus vulgaris, have invariably failed when pitted against our exposed location, harsh winds, low temperatures and short growing season.

While it would give us more versatility and variety to be able to grown common beans—including french, pinto, haricot, kidney and black beans—we’re more than happy to eat our fill of broad beans (or fava beans as they’re also known).

I’ve been sowing this year’s crop of broad beans into Rootrainers, with help from the Wee ‘Un, and jotting down a few notes on growing and eating them, bearing in mind the peculiarities of our location in north-eastern Scotland.

Broad beans originate from Africa and Central Asia, where they’ve been a staple for thousands of years.

They’re a good source of protein and fibre, and have high levels of folates, zinc, phosphorous, iron and magnesium.

On top of that, they’re delicious with a grassy flavour when eaten young and fresh, turning more nutty as the beans grow older.

Broad beans are usually described as growing well in most soils, provided they are neither too acid nor too wet.

In our case, we have very acid soil so we bear that in mind when organising our crop rotation.

Broad beans follow brassicas, which means they go into soil that was limed a year before and enriched with rotted muck and compost before that. They go before the salad leaf crops, which benefit from the beans’ nitrogen fixing.

Broad beans can be sown outdoors in the autumn in milder climes, but up here we’ve found it better to sow indoors in late February under glass in tubes or Rootrainers.

We could sow outdoors under cloches but, as today’s windy weather has shown, we’d need fairly substantial cloches—ours are plastic drinks and milk bottles that fly well even when weighed down with stones.

We’ve tried toilet roll tubes and rolled newspaper tubes, but have found broad beans start best in Rootrainers (peas on the other hand are far less choosy).

We’ve also found that if used carefully it’s possible to get at least four seasons use from Rootrainers and are hoping for a couple more from ours.

We clean the Rootrainers in warm soapy water, then spray them with a 50:50 vinegar and water solution to sterilise them. They’re then left in the sun to dry, with the UV also helping to kill any bugs.

The Rootrainers are filled with commercial seed compost as I prefer to use clean, sterilised materials for starting plants off.

I could make our own seed compost and sterilise it by steaming, but I think this is one of those instances where the commercial product makes more sense, although I do opt for peat-free, organic seed compost.

The beans are pushed well down into the Rootrainers, about 5cm, and covered with more compost, before being watered in.

The trays of Rootrainers are covered with their transparent lids and placed on a long gravel tray, which is kept on the window ledge in the south-facing sun porch.

The beans sprout very quickly and after about four weeks growth, they’re hardened off over a three or four days. They’re put outside by day and brought it at night, with the window left slightly ajar for the final two nights.

By now it’s late March or early April, but the weather can still turn cold with snow and gales so the seedlings don’t go out until the weather forecast indicates a window of three or four days of mild weather.

They’re planted out into double rows, with the rows 20cm apart and 20cm between each seedling in a row. Each double row is 60cm from the next.

The plants are supported with baling twine strung between pairs of heavy stakes at the end of each double row. At least two lines of baling twine are needed, more if your location is as windy as ours.

Once the first seed pods have started to form, we pinch out the top 5cm of each plant to give an earlier harvest and help reduce blackfly attack,

Aside from watering the plants while they’re inside, we’ve found that no watering is needed unless there’s a long spell of dry weather as the seeds start to swell in their pods, in which case regular watering is essential.

The need for watering, and feeding, can be reduced if a 5-7cm deep mulch of well-rotted compost is placed around the plants, although care should be taken not to place the mulch against the stems.

We pick a few of the pods to eat fresh and whole when they’re about 7-8cm long. Next, we pick some to eat as podded baby beans, eaten in the Mediterranean fashion by frying them gently in olive oil with garlic, minced onion and thyme.

After that, we let the pods fill out until the beans are very visible but before the seam at the end of the seed darkens.

The bulk of the crop is picked at this point, then podded, blanched and frozen for use over the coming year. (We eat the beans with their skins on unless we’re pureeing them.)

A few large pods are left on every plant to dry from the end of summer and provide us with seed for the following season.

If the weather turns wet before the seed have dried, we cut the plants off at ground level and hang them up to dry under cover. (Even if the seeds have dried, we still cut the plants off at ground level to leave the root mass in the ground to provide nitrogen for following crops and add organic matter to the soil.

From sowing the seeds in the sun porch to picking the first beans takes from 14 to 16 weeks in our conditions, with the last beans being picked four to six weeks after that.

We aim to grow 200 broad bean plants from 220 seeds and harvest about 100kg of beans.

And no, we’re not sick of them!