GardenBanter.co.uk - View Single Post - Someone said recently to eat broad beans pod and all

Baz[_3_] · 29-06-2013, 11:34 AM posted to uk.rec.gardening

wrote in :

In article ,
David Hill wrote:

How right they were. Absolutely delicious.

Before the 'fur' develops tho'

As I said before, pick them when they are finger size, and slice as
you would runner beans.
I know I've been eating them since the late 40's

If you let runner beans get large enough to need slicing, you have
picked them too late :-)

We have tried broad beans like that, and feel that they are a waste
of pods. They are OK, but the young beans are better. But broad
bean tops come for free ....

But if you don't actually like broad beans then picking the young pods
gives you a sliced green bean a few weeks before your runners or
French beans come into crop.

True, but the condition is not fulfilled in this household!

My point about slicing stands.

Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

We all have different tastes don't we.
I like broad bean tops, the bean, and the pod now that I have tried it.
I wil be growing twice the amount next year. Even the root is useful, I
hear, to fix nitrogen into the soil for next years brassicas.
Broad beans are the only vegetable that I grow that don't get pests and
diseases. Other than blackfly of course if they are sown in spring. I sow
most of mine in autumn. I get the odd one or two with blackfly so I nip the
tops off instead of eating them. The rest are fine.

Baz