We received our first broad bean seeds in 1987 from our former neighbour, Tannie Henna Uys, and 35 years later we are still planting the descendants of those seeds. She offered us advice over the fence about how to plant broad beans in autumn and winter. And, when it was time to harvest in spring, we experienced the broad bean in all its glory, just as she had promised.
Today broad beans are an important crop in our garden – to eat and to be used as green manure. So make sure to plant enough for your needs!
Broad beans (Vicia faba) are also known as English or Windsor beans (or fava or faba beans). If you have a kitchen garden but have never grown them before, let this winter be the time you devote a bed to them – although they grow slowly and demand your time in the kitchen, you will be well rewarded for your patience.
Bean around?
Broad beans are not related to green beans. It’s generally accepted that their wild forebears originated in one of the Mediterranean countries in Central Europe, where they have been right at home since the year dot. The Brits, Sicilians and Spaniards were eating broad beans as long ago as 3000 BC.
The Egyptians, Greeks and Romans revered broad beans to such an extent that they found their way via the Nile Valley to Ethiopia, and from there they spread to India and China. Like many other plants with such a long history, broad beans have collected many uses, myths and legends along the way.
The Greeks took their broad beans so seriously that Pythagoras forbade the eating of this crop – he believed that the beans contained the souls of the dead. The Egyptians felt more or less the same: their priests were not allowed to eat broad beans because they ostensibly possessed magical powers. But the Egyptians kept their options open by offering the beans to the gods. Pharaoh Ramses III thought it was a good idea to remain in favour with a god of the Nile by offering him 11 998 jars of broad beans.
The Sicilians have been performing a religious ritual involving broad beans since the Middle Ages. According to tradition, when Sicily
