October/November – The best time to sow Broad Beans!

October and November are the best months to sow your broad beans. I always used to sow mine in early spring, but when we moved here a neighbour told me that he always sowed his in autumn.

I was shocked saying, “surely any frost will kill them”, but he assured me that they are really tough little plants and that his had always survived. His reason for doing it was the lack of black-fly because of cropping so early. I had to give it a go!

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That autumn I did as he said, simply direct sowing the beans where I wanted them to grow. Within a few weeks they had germinated and in no time at all had grown into plants a few inches tall.

As winter set in and the weather turned properly cold the little plants stopped growing. I was worried about them, they looked so incredibly vulnerable standing just above that, ever so cold soil.

And then we had frost, I was convinced that that was the end of them, how could they possibly survive this, what a silly idea this now seemed to have been.

I consoled myself that I had lost nothing accept a few beans and come the spring I would sow the rest of the packet into warming soil.

Frozen Broad Beans

As the bean plants thawed, they seemed completely unscathed by their freezing ordeal and promptly put a bit more growth on.

There was worse to come though in the form of snow! As with the frost they just took this in their stride and shook it off.

All my worrying proved to be in vain, I think it’s safe to say that they are pretty hardy!

Plants away

As soon as the weather warmed up, the plants were off and running at a pace. Flowers appeared when they were only a quarter of their eventual height.

The plants are pretty much self supporting but it seems that every year once they are covered in bean pods we have strong wind that tries to blow them over.

To support them I’ve always just put two or three horizontal rows of string to stop them from going over. This year though I grew each individual one up a string, the way I grow my tomatoes, which proved very successful and it was easier to pick them.

Beautiful Broad Bean flowers

Whatever time of the year you grow broad beans the beauty of their flowers can’t be denied. Whether you grow the traditional white and black flowering varieties or the pink and crimson variety that I grow, they are simply stunning.

The bees agree and this is another benefit of an autumn sowing which provides an early source of nectar and pollen, and boy do they appreciate it!

The Joys of Harvesting

My broad bean harvest starts at the end of May or very early June and there’s nothing nicer as the weather warms than sitting outside podding beans.

The time of day dictates what I might be drinking. On a Sunday morning podding beans for the Sunday lunch it will definitely be coffee. If it’s after six and I’m podding them for dinner then it might be a beer.

At the peak of the harvest I pod them into containers for the freezer. They don’t stick together and are easily added to risottos and pasta dishes.

The only down-side to broad beans I’ve recently discovered is actually an up-side and that’s the substance in them that blackens your nails as you shell them, it seems to get right under your nails and doesn’t scrub off very easily.

The up-side is it’s caused by a compound called L-dihydroxyphenyl alanine, which is used in medication for Parkinson’s disease. I found a really interesting article describing how broad beans have enough of this compound to increase plasma levels of L-dopa leading to improvement in motor function in people with Parkinson’s.

Once again showing how important our fresh food is and what unexpected benefits it sometimes holds.

Eating Broad Beans

And so to the best bit of all, the eating!

As with all beans they go with just about anything but some of my favourites are; baby ones eaten raw in a simple bean salad; with chorizo and paella rice; in a fragrant bean curry; with other mixed vegetable and rice with good stock; or, in a weekly staple, soy, ginger and salmon pasta.

Hopefully that’s convinced you to run out and buy a packet of seeds! If so, here’a what to do with them.

How to sow broad beans

And so to the sowing. They must be one of the easiest, simplest crops to grow.

You will need:

• Packet of broad bean seeds
• String line
• Label
• Pen
• Dibber
• Tape measure

Place the string line where you want your beans to grow. Choose a reasonably sheltered and sunny spot.

Measure and mark 5cm on your dibber, this just makes it quick and easy.

I make all of the holes before I start putting the beans in. My dibber is approximatley 20cm long so ideal for measuring from one hole to the next.

Shake a few beans out into your hand and pop one in each hole.

Fill in and place a label at the end of the row.

In a few weeks after germination, if you have any gaps just pop another bean in.

Whilst you spend the winter months inside planning next years garden, your broad beans will already be up and running ready to give you a super early crop.

Happy gardening.