Jack and the bean stalk

“A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti.” Hannibal Lecter’s quote in the Silence of the Lambs movie.

According to a google search, fava beans are one of the oldests cultivated plants. Dating back to the ancient Greeks and Romans. Also called broad beans, pigeon beans, horse beans and Windsor beans. I always try to plant something unusual every year. Did have a problem with black aphids attacking the favas, but I used a safer organic insecticide and it worked. Did have to fight slugs when the plants were sprouting.

Growing: Fava beans can with stand temperatures down to 15 degrees, I planted in early April. The seeds are almost as big as a quarter. You would think favas could be the bean Jack planted to grow the Bean Stalk. The plants grow between 4 - 5 feet tall. They do need to be staked, as the pods get to heavy and pull the stalk down. The pods grow erect up the stalk and when ready are between 7 to 8 inches long. When the beans point down they are ready to pick.

Harvesting: Fava beans are a little bit labor intensive. Pull the pods off like a green bean or a pea. Open the pod up by pulling on the blossom end. 

Inside you will find beans that resemble lima beans. The inside of the pod is white and fluffy. Remove the beans from the pod. Bring a sauce pan half full of water to boil. Add the beans, cook about two minutes. 

Drain and rinse immediately with cold water to stop the cooking. Now take off their tiny raincoats. Favas have a rubber looking shell that is tough and has to be pinched off. Pinch each bean on the opposite side were it was attached to the pod.

Cooking: I sautéed favas in onions/garlic in a little butter, then add the beans and stir only about 5 minutes. Serve immediately. Favas are also good in stews, add 10 minutes before serving.

I fixed favas with dinner the other night. I could see my husband eating the beans real slow, like a little kid eating a nasty vegetable. Asked him how favas compare to Brussels sprouts (his least loved vegetable), he said he liked them the same as Brussels sprouts, not a fan.

worn out zucchinis

Who takes a week off from work just to work in the garden and putter around the yard? Me.

I live with my handsome husband and a tuxedo cat on five acres in rural Montesano. I tend to a very large garden, four blueberry bushes, raspberry patch, two disappointing apple trees, and a small greenhouse that has seen better days, it currently has strips of duct tape in various places.

There’s always something to do outside. Watering, harvesting, planting or pulling weeds. Seems like in week I could have gotten a lot done. Nope.

Monday I watered and weeded some and just puttered.

Tuesday I went up to visit my son in Des Moines, which involved walking around Seattle and such. Great fun. We even rode The Duck tour.

I noticed on my son’s patio, there were 6 tomato plants, 1 pepper and some peas growing in pots. Reminds me when I asked my son to help me weed our large garden when he was in high school. He wasn’t wanting to help with the weeding and he assured me that his future wife would not have a garden. Interesting how things change. He’s even excited about me bringing him and his wife fresh veggies from our garden. The next day I was pretty tired from the trip. Didn’t get much gardening done outside, kept on watching the food channel or yard crashers.

Thursday I picked up our two granddaughters, ages 7 and 3. After a trip to McDonald’s and to the Salvation Army for some shopping, they were getting antsy to get to the house to see the garden and play.

Boy, you have to keep both eyes on young children all the time. Lucky, I saw a bobcat recently and told them I wasn’t sure if bobcats get people or not. So the unknown did keep them from running off unsupervised.

We grabbed our bowls and went out to pick blueberries. We all learned to only pick the blue ones. But do you know how hard a 3 year old can throw a blueberry in the bowl? Hard. Most of them bounced out. Soon we were done.

Next stop, picking peas. “Now hold the pea vine in one had and pull the pea off carefully,” I said. Three year olds don’t really like to hold the vine, they prefer to grab the pea by itself and just pull the whole vine real hard… Well we did get enough peas for dinner.

Giant zucchini. Both girls definitely had to pick a zucchini. They decided that was enough gardening for now. Later they drew faces on the zucchinis, poked barrettes in the sides, wrapped them in blankets, wheeled them around in a stroller and dropped them on the floor. It was a long day. Bless their hearts.

The girls had never slept outside before. Silly me says, “hey how would you like to sleep in a tent”? They were all excited about it. Got the tent up, sleeping bags, pillows and out we went in to the night. We were suppose to be listening for the bobcat — we could hear a dog barking and birds chirping — the girls were screaming and yelling each time they heard a noise. Then I heard myself yell at them for screaming and yelling! I guess my parenting skills are a little rusted. Reminds me of an episode on “That 70s Show” when Kitty asked Red where he got his rough parenting skills — Red replies, “In Ko-Reea”. Anyways both girls were  sleeping within ten minutes.

The next day I was kind of tired, again. Not much gardening got done. I did send the worn out zucchinis home with the girls.