Karl Warner wrote:
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)

Fava beans are a staple food in the Andes, which is where I became
familiar with them, but they are originally part of that
"circum-Mediterrean" trade circuit that spread foodstuffs and culinary
traditions from Morocco through the middle east and around as far as the
south of France and Spain, from whence you can head back to North Africa
for another go 'round. They are popular in Italy, for example.

They make a great "meaty" soup bean, among other things. Slipping the
skin off is a matter of preference, I suppose. If you think about how
many pods of peas you would have to shell for a cup of peas, vs. how
many pods of favas, you can see that even if you pop the skin off it
takes about the same amount of time. If you cook them in something like
soup, the skin will often slip off anyhow. Then you have fava skins
floating around, which is not all that attractive or appealing.

A less familiar (and very Andean) way of preparing them is to toss them
with a little oil and salt, then roast them in on a cookie sheet in a
low oven (350 or so) until they are golden and crunchy. Stir them around
every ten minutes or so--it takes about 30 minutes total. The effect is
similar to roasted chickpeas, if you've ever had those--a little hard on
the teeth, but very tasty snack!

Fava beans, or as they are known in the UK, broad beans, are one of the most commonly grown vegetables here. We plant in a shallow double row 4-6 inches apart with around 6 inches between the two rows. Planted in the late fall they are less prone to blackfly than spring sown ones and are ready in June. They are, in UK conditions, totally frost hardy.
If you pick them before the pods seem full they are very tender, but if left to grow larger develop a skin that some prefer to slip off after cooking.