Broad Beans – An Easy Crop To Grow

Broad beans generally are very easy to grow. They also freeze very well, losing none of their texture or taste in the process. Abundant harvests make these one of the most useful of all crops in your vegetable patch.

Broad beans have significantly better textures if you pick them young. If you leave them too long they tend to end up a bit like cardboard when cooked. You do not necessarily lose quantity in the harvest by picking early, since the plant will continue to crop after you have picked them. Because they are an early harvest, once you have finished with them, you can clear the site and still have time to grow another late crop of a different vegetable.

If you have trouble with blackfly on them, there are a number of ways to prevent it. The first is to either sow in Autumn in the ground or in pots under cover in early spring, transplanting when they are four or five inches high. Black fly likes young, tender shoots best so you are avoiding this stage whilst the blackl fly are active. The second method is to plant a row of Summer Savory near them as a companion plant. This will deter the blackfly.Planting marigold close by also helps since black fly love marigolds and are more likely to attck them than your Broad Beans. Pinching out the growing tip of the plants once the pods are set also helps deter black fly.

Unless you suffer from gout, broad beans are very good for you. Freshly picked they are packed full of Vitamins A,C and E and also a god source of protein and fibre.