Broad bean Express

The Express Broad Bean is a fast-growing variety, with each plant producing up to 34 pods containing tender and tasty beans. It is a broad bean that freezes particularly well. The sowing period extends from February to June for a harvest from June to August.

The Broad Bean is a legume that belongs to the large Fabaceae family, like beans and peas. After falling somewhat out of fashion, it seems to be making a comeback in vegetable gardens. It is a vegetable that is worth rediscovering without hesitation, as its cultivation is easy.

Originally from Asia and the Middle East, the Broad Bean is widely grown around the world, both for its flavor and its nutritional qualities. Rich in energy nutrients, it is considered a starchy food. There are many varieties of Broad Beans, with varying pod sizes and grain colors: some are white, others are brown.

The Broad Bean can be consumed both raw and cooked. However, it is a dish that requires some effort, as preparing fresh Broad Beans takes time: you will need to shell them first, and then remove the second skin from each bean.

To enjoy them raw with a sprinkle of salt, like radishes, you should harvest them when they are young and tender, thus avoiding the second peeling. Generally, 1 kg of raw Broad Beans yields 250 g of peeled beans.

Cultivating Broad Beans is easy, and if your soil is rather poor, clayey, and moist, you can rejoice for once! Broad Beans are made for you. Indeed, like all Fabaceae, they are not demanding. And they thrive best in heavy and very fresh soils. They are also not very cold-sensitive and can be sown as early as February in most parts of France.

Harvest: Harvesting Broad Beans simply involves picking pods at different degrees of ripeness, depending on how you wish to consume them: raw, cooked, or dried.

Storage: Fresh Broad Beans can be stored for a few days in the vegetable compartment of your refrigerator. You can also dry them and store them at room temperature. Broad Beans also freeze very well.

The gardener's tip: Broad Beans are the preferred vegetable of black aphids. It is rare for them not to be attacked by a colony that usually descends massively on an entire row. To dislodge them without resorting to insecticides, you can spray water mixed with black soap (2 tablespoons per liter).

This year, in our garden, having read that their presence could promote fruiting, we let them be. Quickly, we noticed the presence of ladybugs. They were not numerous enough, of course, but the harvest was quite decent, even though, it must be admitted, the pods were black and rather sticky! In the end, we enjoyed them, and we believe that the ladybugs are now more numerous in the garden, as there is not a single aphid on our Nasturtiums.