Friday, 23 March 2018

Broad beans

As a kid, I was fed broad beans that my Dad grew.  At the start of the season, harvested immature, they were OK, being small and tender.  As the crop continued over the Summer and Autumn, it was hard to keep up and eat them all, so they matured and became tough.   The skins were especially unpleasant.   I planted broad beans last year, and had no difficulty eating the beans when they were still small tender, largely because there weren't that many.

This Spring is being pretty miserable, weather-wise.  It's drizzling today, and cool.  My veg patch soil is at 5°C and Accuweather tell me that I can expect to wait another three or four weeks before the average day/night temperature exceeds 10°C, which is the soil temperature needed by broad beans to germinate.

I planted some broad beans this morning, anyway.  I put them under perspex cloches in the hope that this will warm the soil a bit.  I get impatient.




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4 comments:

  1. helen devries23 March 2018 at 09:33

    Always skinned broad beans...a boring job, bu it made them edible. A friend had a Bocuse recipe for broad bean and potato puree...i was superb and you might like to look it up if you haven't come across it.

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  2. Mark In Mayenne23 March 2018 at 09:51

    I will do that, Helen, thank you

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  3. James Higham24 March 2018 at 04:19

    Interesting with broad beans. We also had them and I never liked them then but now they are nice and good in a stew or the French equivalent.

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  4. CherryPie26 March 2018 at 15:15

    I have quite a few recipes that require broad beans. I agree with Helen, they are best shelled. Apart from the coarseness, the bean also tastes better without the shell.

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