I have just shelled a bucketful of Broad Beans.
By dianebulley
6 comments
(vivia faba) which produced just a l.5 pint mingy plastic jug of eatable food, which I have put in the freezer. Will make a white sauce to improve them, as my mother used to do.
I grew them in a 10’ square in which I dug 4 × 70 litre bags of best horse manure, expecting a mammoth crop with stems at least 4 ’ tall and loaded with pods.
Who inflicted this time wasting, space wasting, monstrosity on this country we will never know. Someone from North Africa or South East Asia, according to Wikipaedia. I am sure Chris Hughes would give a more erudite description of it (after his outburst on the promoters of sport on Eggheads last week, which was very funny) – than I can.
Who was ‘Claudia Aquadulce ?’ Seems the old Romans and Greeks enjoyed them. I suppose she was a lady who worked at the Roman baths. The velvet inside of the pods was used as a rememdy for Warts – which you get from running round swimming pools with no shoes on.
Remind me next November, not to be tempted by the attractive packets, which are of more use to gardeners’ scrapbooks, than the contents.
23 Jun, 2012
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Whew, I am glad that you got that off your chest, Diane ;-)
We never had much success with the autumn sown broad beans as our winters tend to be too cold and wet for them. The spring sown ones are a different matter. We expect a huge harvest for freezing and end up still eating them just as the following years beans are ready. Love broad beans!
23 Jun, 2012
Sorry you didn't get the crop you hoped for.... :o((
23 Jun, 2012
Thanks Bulbaholic. This is interesting, again showing how growing conditions vary in different parts of the country.
We get Black Fly on Broad Beans. Thats why the Autumn sown varities are popular in this area. I pick the tops off and hide them in a bag so the insects cant get out !
My allotment neighbour sows several rows of them in the Spring, goes round with the spray when the Black Fly appear. Its just a nack of getting the right timing, because the spray kills the pollinating insects. No flowers, no Beans. Its a waste of time me growing plants to help the Bees when he does this.
Just another of the hazards of being an Allotment Gardener.
24 Jun, 2012
I'm with Bulba - LOVE BBs! I also leave a couple of pots of Nasturtiums around by the bean bed - black fly swarm to them and leave the beans alone.
24 Jun, 2012
Brilliant - thank you Nariz, maybe thats what the Romans did. Will try the Spring varieties next year with the Nasturtiums. ? If I can get them to flower early enough. Heres hoping.
25 Jun, 2012
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awwww..... Diane... at least you GOT some beans, I grew them last year and the birds ate all the flowers so I got nothing lol, a lesson learned!
23 Jun, 2012