Broad bean

Vegetables.

Sow broad beans for an early crop.

Now let's head to the veg patch.

October is a good time of year to start sowing broad beans for an early harvest next year.

Varieties like Aguadulce Claudia and Bunyard's Exhibition are ideal for autumn sowing.

Do make sure, check on the seed packet, that the broad beans you choose are for autumn sowing.

There are spring sowing varieties too.

Starting them now means you'll be picking beans a good two or three weeks ahead of spring sown crops, and you'll often dodge the worst of the blackfly too.

Grab your gloves, it's time to grow Seeds and flowers, watch them grow From the garden to the allotment again You're listening to Gardening with Ben Hey, let's grow, Gardening with Ben

hello and welcome to gardening with ben for a new episode on this thursday well we have been down to the allotment today as i've recorded this and we have done an absolutely load of work today again we've been busy busy busy and doing these podcasts and my videos encourages me to do lots of work so that i keep filming the content and keep getting it all out to you well I looked at the forecast like I always do before I go to the allotment and it said rain rain rain all day and I thought no I'm gonna have to stay in the polytunnel and just do jobs in there however the rain never came so we got lots of work done outside as well so we have done an absolute load today my main priority of the day was planting my broad beans down at the plot which we got done which we'll talk about further on in the podcast i also managed to plant some winter hellebores and cleared some new area and started filming a lot of content for the week ahead as well so that you can see on facebook all the content from this weekend's work down at the plot so yeah we've been busy down at the plot and i'm i'm starting to see a lot of progress down at my allotment as things are starting to take shape all the stuff what i'm doing over these few days Seems to be coming together and seems to be really making the plot look good again.

The best thing about winter sometimes is that all the weeds start dying back and it starts looking empty and clear again and looks tidy.

And I don't know how you all feel, but when obviously summer and stuff comes and everything starts getting overgrown, it starts to look a bit of a mess.

I've got plans of what I'm going to do, and hopefully it'll all come together, and hopefully we'll be able to get all the equipment that we need to get it all done.

But there's still plenty happening at the allotment even though as we head into winter there's certainly plenty more to come over these few months and into the new season next year.

So the first thing that we did down at the plot today was plant our broad beans.

As it was drizzling I thought I'll head into the polytunnel and I'll get my broad beans planted.

Food with a mess is broad beans, right? Yeah, broad beans,

fava beans.

Fava roots back to pharaonic times.

We're supposed to be writing an article on it, actually.

The beans of the dead.

And then there's going to be cheeses, white cheeses, always, with some form of seeds and blends, spice blends.

And that's on the table for whoever wants to grab something on the go.

Fava beans are really filling, so it keeps you going all day.

Okay.

So Clint is asking me questions about fava beans.

And I'm going to, Clint, I'm going to come back to that in a minute.

I want to talk a little bit about airports, if you don't mind.

So quickly developing it so we can get some more tonnage in here and some different sorts of grains as well.

You mentioned Farber Beans.

We'll get to that shortly because I know that's a really exciting space for you guys at Commodity Ag.

But if we look out, there is a lot of action going on in a paddock just near us.

And people know what it is.

So how would you label it? We've sat in this chat talking about fava beans.

Well, actually, in the UK, people don't tend to call them fava.

They don't call it fava beans.

Fava beans are Hannibal Lecter and Chianti.

That's what it is.

They don't really know that actually it's just a broad bean.

And so how you label it is kind of important in terms of... for acceptability then you've got the well actually when fava flour or fava beans arrives in a product they're not used to is how you sell it and how you promote it so high protein more nutrition whatever it might be it doesn't matter that's the route that we've got fava in at the moment um but that acceptance for the consumer isn't entirely straightforward we are we know that um The people that we engage with on the commercial side of this think that there's a market for it and they can do it, but it's a challenge and a hurdle.

Okay.

So apparently Greek people had an aversion to fava beans.

Okay.

Which I- [laughs]

Is that why he does that in the movie?

What? Maybe.

He eats the fava beans-

Yes

They are starting to show themselves, they're starting to grow and that is a good sign.

But I have sown some more green manures and this time it is field beans.

Now field beans is a legume, much like broad beans.

They do actually produce an edible bean.

They're not the tastiest bean, but they are actually an edible crop.

So there's a real good advantage to having more nitrogen in the soil.

Now...

What we've got to remember with field beans is that the nitrogen actually gets used up when the plant flowers.

Also of the coconut, of coffee, where it is dense and hard, et cetera.

While in peas, beans, almonds, and in most edible nuts, the store of food, although essentially the same in nature and in use, is in the embryo itself, and therefore is not counted as anything to be separately named.

In both forms, this concentrated food for the germinating plant is food also for man and for animals.

Figure forty, seed of morning glory divided, moderately magnified, shows a longitudinal section through the center of the embryo as it lies crumpled in the albumen.

So also the seed leaves, or cotyledons, are commonly used for storage.

Some, as in one of the maples, the pea, horse chestnut, oak, etc., are for nothing else.

Others, as in beech and in our common beans, give faint indication of service as foliage, also chiefly in vain.

Still others, as in the pumpkin and flax, having served for storage, develop into the first efficient foliage.