Broad bean Robin Hood

The Robin Hood Bean, or "Robin des Bois" in French, is a dwarf variety with green grains and a very compact habit. Very productive, the plants bear fairly short pods that contain up to 6 grains. This is a very interesting variety for square foot gardens and container gardening as it does not exceed 35 cm (14in) in height. Sowing can be done in autumn or spring for a harvest from June to August.

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

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

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

To enjoy them raw with a pinch of salt, like radishes, you will harvest them when they are young and tender, and thus avoid the second peeling. Generally, it takes 1 kg of raw Beans to obtain 250 g of peeled Beans.

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

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

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

Gardener's tip: 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 a whole 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 ladybirds. They were not numerous enough, of course, but the harvest was quite respectable even though, it must be admitted, the pods were black and rather sticky! In the end, we enjoyed them and we believe that ladybirds are now more numerous in the garden because there is not a single aphid on our Nasturtiums.