Picking broad beans really is a family affair in the Pasco household. The fat, swollen pods are full of promise and we eagerly pop them open to release the harvest.
Much to my wife’s surprise, my two children really enjoyed their first taste of broad beans a few years ago. Was this a result of their active participation in bringing in the crop, or did they really enjoy the flavour of their first home-grown broad beans?
More hands certainly make light work of preparing beans and peas for cooking, but you have to time your picking just right. Leave broad beans for too long and you’ll notice the ‘scar’ holding each bean in place inside the pod turns dark brown. This tells me the beans are really past their best, and will have developed tough, inedible skins.
The best beans are younger, and probably slightly smaller, with a creamy white ‘scar’ attached to each bean. Young beans are delicious, and can be eaten skins and all – unless you have fussy kids like mine who want each bean peeled (well, they’re certainly easier to peel than grapes).
But don’t despair if your beans have matured more than you would have wanted. Just cook, peel and mash the beans into a tasty puree.
Broad beans are a simple crop to grow, but you do need quite a long row of them if you’re going to enjoy a reasonable harvest to feed a family. Once picking is over just cut off their tops at soil level, and leave their roots to break down in the soil.
Sow a leafy salad crop over the area, and the new crop will benefit from the release back into the soil of nitrogen captured in the bean roots by bacteria. This acts like a natural fertiliser created by nitrogen-fixing bacteria in the nodules of bean roots (and other members of the legume family).
It’s too late to sow more broad beans now, but dwarf French beans and even runner beans develop quickly over summer to produce a welcome crop later in autumn.
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I must have a go at growing them next year. Can some be sown in the autumn to produce earlier crops?
Growing Broad Beans in my garden is slightly traumatic as the resident Jackdaws will pull up the young seedlings and eat the seed bean, and when the crop is almost ready, they descend in droves and strip the pods of their contents. This year however, a fruit cage has done the trick, still black fly and the lack of water this year to contend with. The end product though, is absolutely marvellous, and the added bonus is nobody else in the family likes them, so they are all mine!!
I’ve just pulled my first row of beans from the ground, the roots have a covering of nodules, white in colour, crinkly balls, anyone know if these will be OK to compost or do dispose of them??
Reply to kparry: Well spotted. These are the nodules produced on roots containing nitrogen fixing bacteria. These are really beneficial, and so roots can either be left in the soil or added to the compost heap. They’ll release nitrogen as they decompose, and this is a useful nutrient that following crops will be able to take up.
what is the best killer
to use to kill the roots
to bamboo
Thanks for the advice Adam
I need to harvest mum and dad’s dwarf french beans (they’re away until the middle of August). Once picked is it best to freeze them and do you have to blanch them first?
In reply to bean feast’s question, I sow broad beans in october as well as Feb,March & April. I lost 50% of last years October crop due to the extremely cold winter, but the other 50% gave me beans a good two weeks before the Feb crop. I am waiting for the surplus beans now to make wine with, I did it last year and got a fab sweet fortified wine.
My broad beans looked good when I harvested them, but when I opened them, some of them were completely empty – no beans at all inside although they looked swollen and full of beans. Any ideas why?
Reply to Tina: Check back to last September’s issue of Gardeners’ World Magazine where we published a comprehensive feature on preserving fruits and crops.
For beans, blanch in boiling water for one and a half minutes, then plunge into cold water. Pat dry and freeze in a single layer on a foil covered tray. Once frozen, pack in portion sizes in freezer bags, sealing their top. Label and date bags. French beans can be stored for about 12 months.
Can anyone tell me why my broad beans have shrivelled and died? They did have a particularly bad attack of blackfly even after pinching out the tips, i sprayed them with a soap and water mix and removed as much as i could with my fingers when watering. The leaves started to go brown then the stems then the pods shrivelled, I’ve heard of something called “chocolate spot”, do my beans have it and how can i prevent it happening again?
When growing cucumbers outside/inside do you pick off flowers as cucumber is growing or before etc.
I was told pick off flowers otherwise you get no cucumbers. I did not but still got cues.
A pal of mine did not pick off flowers but is getting a yellow cue?
Any advice would be helpful.
Thanks
Dennis
I need some advice on when to pick some dwarf broad beans I’ve grown in a pot. There are about a dozen pods all at varying stages with the largest measuring about 6″ long.
Would they be ok to pick now? Sorry if the question is a bit simple but it’s my first year growing anything (my wife’s the gardener). I’ve grown carrots in a pot with some success but this year is a trial run so I can have a real go next year
Broad beans are notorious for black fly. How do you prevent them from getting fly and what is the best way to get rid of them?
I grew two tomato plants on my patio this year. I’ve started picking the red ones, but find the skins are quite tough. Where have I gone wrong?
Pennybont: it all depends on variety. Some tomato varieties have thicker skins that others, so choose one next year that doesn’t have such thick skin.
i have grown five plum tomatoe plants and all if not most of the fruit has gone black and rotten on the bottom of each one i have spoken to other people and theirs have gone the same way can you enlighten me why
Terry: Perhaps irregular watering is to blame, just a thought.