Our family have a saying that ‘broad beans make a salad’. We like the young tender beans raw in salads even more than we like them cooked.

Spring is a good time to plant broad beans and young plants are appearing at retailers so try some now. These stubby 2-3″ high plants can be planted out in rows or blocks for an early crop. It is still a good time to sow beans for continuity and they will even catch up many of the plants.

• The trick with broad beans is to pick them and eat them young. By the time the part of the bean attaching it to the pod goes black the bean is old, the sugar has gone starchy and the bean is chewy and the kids won’t want to eat them.
• Pick them whilst the bean is still growing and they will be sweet and tender with soft skins.
• Sow varieties like Green Windsor or the short podded organic Witkiem Manita (new to me) for flavour
• Eat ‘pods and all’ from varieties The Sutton and Stereo as you would mangetout
• White and green seeded varieties differ little in flavour but I have a preference for the green ones as the others remind me of school butterbeans (which were really lima beans).
• Heirloom varieties include Bunyards Exhibition, Masterpiece Green Longpod, The Sutton and Aquadulce Claudia.
• Black fly can be a problem at the tip of the plant so if you are organic pinch it out tops at the first sign.
• Tall varieties will need some string support between canes at the end of rows
• Late sowings in August can produce tender green tops for a stir fry

Odd Facts about Beans
Longpod beans were fed to horses and were the origin of frisky horses being ‘full of beans’.
Add fresh broad beans to a mixed salad for a special crunchy treat. They also make a fine vegetable or addition to a soup (Brown Windsor).
Give broad bean plants s some support by stringing from stout corner posts to form a fence like structure about 2-3″ high depending on the variety. Check the packet for the expected height.

The broad bean seeds I planted earlier this year are now well in flower. I forgot to plant any Broad beans in October to overwinter but I am to be rewarded if the volume of flowers is anything to go by. However I missed an early crop.

Action Plan for Broad Beans

• I bought my seed loose by weight and am very happy with the germination.
• The varieties Masterpiece Green Longpod and Broad Bean Aquadulce Claudia were intended for Autumn sowing but I was too late and ended up sowing in February.
• Aquadulce establishes itself very quickly and will produce a very early crop. It is white seeded and the pods are up to 9 inches long. Height: 36-40 in .
• To avoid feeding the mice I set off the seeds in 3″ pots until they are 2- 3″ high.
• I plant out in double rows 10″ apart and put in 4 corner posts with string to provide some support.
• Luckily I do not suffer from black fly (famous last words). If they were attacked I would pinch out the tips of the growing plants and the pods would not be affected.
• After cropping I compost the top haulms but leave the roots in the soil.