Fava beans are great for the PNW climate. You can plant them 3x a year
(Fall, early spring and late spring). and, you can eat them green, like
peas or wait 'til they're brown. The "Fava Bean Project" would be a great
resource to check with. They're based in Oregon and should have a website.
They also put out a little pamphlet on growing fava beans and different
varieties.

I don't know if you've seen a frost, yet, but Favas are hardy and it might
be interesting to see how long they'll hang on.

For recipes, middle eastern style would be yummy. They use favas a lot in
Egypt.
"Karl Warner" wrote in message
...
I live in southwest Washington State, seacoast, USDA zone 8. This summer I
planted a dozen fava beans out of curiosity. Never grown them before, don't
recall ever seeing them before. The bush beans and pole beans are now long
gone but the favas appear to be in full stride. Each stalk has a cluster of
7 to 8 pods of all sizes tho most are the size of sausages! By feel the
beans inside are the size of grapes. How long are these things likely to
keep growing? Are they a cool season crop? They don't look like they are
ready to pick. Should I just wait until the pods turn brown and then shell
them? How to eat them will be yet another new experience.
-- Karl Warner (in a grove of pine trees, in the lee of a dune)