Vegetable Harvest – Discover Broad Beans

Posted on 02. Jun, 2009 by Tracey in My Veg Plot

32 Weeks its taken to grow my Broad Beans, they were sown straight into my raised bed in October 2008 to be overwintered until Spring.

They have survived the cold, wet and windy winter, a few blackfly clusters on their tips and me forgetting to stake them again but it was all worth while to finally harvest them.

My love for Broad Beans has grown over the last few years, in 2007 I started sowing the dwarf variety The Sutton as in my 29 years I had never tasted broad beans before I started growing them!

It is a risky thing to grow something you haven’t tasted before and some would argue that you would be wasting time and space, but vegetable growing to me has always been about discovery.

I’m really glad I did take the risk and grow broad beans because otherwise I would have never seen their beautiful and unique white and black spot flowers, the bees buzzing round trying to take their pollen on swaying plants (that I had forgotten to stake) and the upright grandure the emerging broad bean plants have in the vegetable garden.

Thats even before the harvesting, cooking and yummy eating has taken place, its very satisfing to de-pod your beans, lightly boil them for 4-5 minutes and then add a bit of butter. I simply love the flavour of Broad Beans.

Variety of Broad Beans grown this year: Super Aquadulce.
Description on Packet: Long pods with 8-9 beans. Compact plants, hardy organic variety.

My Opinion:
I would definitely grow this variety again, the pods are very long, and there are lots of pods on my plants. The plants only needed supporting with 2 canes and some string in between.

Please view the slideshow below to discover the growing cycle of Broad Beans.
If you wish to view the slideshow in a separate window, please click here.