I have a fava bean tradition; it started one year ago with a risotto recipe I found that included fava beans.  The risotto recipe wasn’t even memorable, but the fava beans were great and I knew I wanted more. 

Problem was they were expensive.  I ended up paying something like $5 per pound for organic whole fava beans because I needed them and didn’t have time to shop around for a better price.  I thought the price was high but once I got home and started preparing the fava beans I realized it was actually very high.   See, fava beans have an excessive amount of natural packaging that includes an outer pod with cushioning foam and an inner sleeve.  It makes cooking them a bit tedious and I always wonder why nature felt they had to be so well packed.  Nevertheless, what all of that packaging means is that the $5 per pound I paid that time really translates into something like $20 per pound for just the beans.  I vowed never to buy fava beans again; I mean why buy something when you can grow it?  As with most beans they are pretty easy to grow.  Hence my fava bean tradition.  Every fall, I plant a row of fava beans.  Over the winter I watch them grow, and come spring I turn them into delicious meals including a must have Fricassee of Beef.  My garden yields about 10-15 pounds of whole fava beans which allows me to make 3 or 4 different fava bean dishes.  While it would be nice if the 3 or 4 servings of fava beans were spread out a bit more during the year that’s not how the garden works so for the next couple of weeks we’ll be trying out some new fava bean recipes and hopefully not get sick of them before the last harvest.  Of course by next fall I’ll be craving the next year’s harvest…

Five pounds of whole fava beans The shelled beans. Notice the foam-like packaging of the bean pod. The inner bean membrane. Finally, we get to the fava beans!

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