A Bean of Another Sort

I'm in love with Fava Beans.  I've never actually eaten one prepared as an edible food.  There's even a can of them in my cupboard that I'm hesitant to open and eat.  Weird, totally weird you might say. Yup!

This part goes in the salad.  I'm going to stir-fry them soon.

Fava beans are cold hardy and can be planted early in the spring before frost danger has backed off.  They sprout right up and are covered with the most delicious grey-green leaves.  That's the part I love.  Salads made of all the edible green things that grow in my yard are what make my body strong and my heart sing at the dinner table. So before dinner, bits of all these are collected from the garden with heavy emphasis on the Fava Bean leaves.

Lush stand of beans obviously not diminished by
contributing leaves to our dinner table

You might think that a plant would have a tough time growing if all its leaves were pulled off.  That's undoubtably true.  So I always left the top three of four clusters--they grow in groups of five or six.

Very fat Favas on stems that are naked below--evidence
of my bean leaf theft

Now the plants are setting on beans. I've nibbled a few fresh and raw off the vine.  I know they aren't toxic, but it is clear they are best prepared some other way.

Unique blossoms of the Fava:  black and white

Soon I'll open that can in the cupboard and see if I like the beans.  Right now it's the greens I love.