Gardening – Growing your own: broad beans

FOR those of you intending to grow broad beans this season, please spare a thought for the poor census collectors who call to your door. The 1991 crime thriller 'The Silence of the Lambs' is enough to spook even the bravest census employee, given the famous lines of Hannibal (the cannibal) Lecter. In one scene, Dr Lecter leans towards the toughened glass of his cell and quietly says, 'A census taker once tried to test me, I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti'. You know for years I thought that Anthony Hopkins in the role of Lecter was saying fodder beans instead of fava beans. I presumed these were some sort of bulk-grown fodder grown for feeding animals. It's only recently, when I saw the quote in print, that I copped it, fava beans, which is the American term for our broad beans. With the conditions now suitable for broad bean seeding, I laughed to myself when I thought of all the census takers gripping this newspaper a bit tighter on reading this column. Have no fear census person, instead let's look at how you can cultivate your own crop of broad beans. Seeding from March to the end of May in a sunny spot is the norm, with shelter also beneficial, as most broad bean plants stand three to four feet (90 to 120 cm) tall. Sowing at monthly spacings will provide you with a bean harvest at intervals throughout the summer. Ideally the area you set aside for growing should have been forked over the previous winter, with lots of well-rotted compost or farmyard manure dug in at that time. This is preferable but not essential so don't let it put you off your seed sowing. Some rules can be bent slightly and you can still grow a good crop if you prepare the land just before planting. Sowing and aftercare In your lightly raked growing area you must create a double row of two inch (five cm) deep drills or trenches with the tip of your trowel. There should be eight inches (20 cm) between the drills of the double row. Every eight inches (20 cm) along the drills place one seed, close over with soil, and then water in. Create as many double rows as you like at 24 in (60 cm) intervals. If you haven't much space you can always sow single rows, if you like. As with peas, it is helpful to sow a few extra bean seeds at the end of some rows to be used as transplants, if gaps appear. Two seed varieties I would recommend are Bunyard's Exhibition and Imperial Green Longpod. Bunyard's is an old reliable, which produces heavy crops of sweet beans. Imperial Green Longpod, like Bunyard's, produces huge yields which, thankfully, freeze well. The care of your broad bean plants consists of the usual weeding and watering, with watering requiring very close attention once the bean pods start to form, or else they may end up empty. What many gardeners don't anticipate is how tall and heavy with pods these plants can become. Breezes and heavy rains can easily break the brittle stalks of your plants, so I urge you to stake. Drive a wooden stake in at either end of your individual rows, with further stakes driven in every 120 cm (four feet) along the rows. With double rows, this forms a narrow box of stakes. Wind lengths of string round and through the lower halves of the stakes, with further lengths added higher up as the beans grow taller. The plants now have something they can lean against when harmful winds blow across your veg patch. Time from spring planting to harvest is from ten to 12 weeks with most gardeners picking once the pods have reached about 15 to 20 cm (six to eight inches) in length. You can let them grow longer but do realise that the larger the pod the less palatable the swelled beans inside will be. Noticing the shape of the beans starting to show through the pod is another indicator you can harvest. Broad beans are good boiled in lightly salted water for approx ten minutes, then served up with fried bacon and a little melted butter or cheese sauce. Don't forget to add your broad beans to your garden vegetable soup, whole or as a puree. You can even team them in a casserole with garden onions, carrots, peas and tomatoes. Next week, onions. Until then, happy gardening and remember that a weed is just a plant in the wrong place.