Broad Bean 'Crimson Flowered' - Vicia faba

Add colour to your kitchen garden with these broad beans. This is a beautiful, rare heirloom (1788) variety known for its striking, vivid crimson-red flowers, making it ornamental as well as edible, producing tasty beans in pods. Growing about 1.5 meter high, these hardy, frost-tolerant plants offer a 'wow factor' in winter gardens and are grown from autumn to spring, requiring full sun and moist, well-drained soil, needing staking for support.

I use the leaves winter salads. There are three stages to harvest your bean pods.

1 - Pods are a tasty treat when eaten young.

2 - Harvest pods when beans have formed. Shell as you would for peas.

3 - Large pods need to be doubled podded. Blanch beans in hot water for 3 mins, drain and place in cold water. Remove the outer casing.

Broad beans can be dried and used later for cooking. Soak dried beans in water for at least 15 hours, changing the water halfway through, to plump them up. Once soaked and possibly peeled, dried broad beans are cooked like other dried beans in soups, stews, or curries until tender.

Direct sow 3cm deep into rich well drained soil, water once after sowing and not again till they germinate. Space seeds approximately 30cm apart. Harvest 75 days.

Cool Climate - March to August

Temperate - April to June

Sub–Tropical - March to June

Tropical - March to June

You need to ensure plants have finished flowering before the daytime temperature reaches 20C.

Broad Bean Dip

300g broad beans (podded weight)

3 tablespoons crème fraîche

½ a lemon

1 tablespoon fresh dill

flatbreads, pitta bread or chunky bread

Bring a large pan of water to the boil. Add the broad beans and cook until tender. Drain and refresh in iced water. Blitz the broad beans, crème fraîche and a little seasoning together in a food processor. Put in a bowl and squeeze in the lemon juice. Pick, finely chop and stir through the dill, then serve with bread, ideally warmed. Reference: Jamie Oliver

I use pods that need to be double podded as they are at this stage during the warmer months. This dip can be used instead of butter.

Seeds currently available.

$5.00 - 10 open pollinated seeds

$4.00 - postage within Australia

Email to order - fascinatingbotanicals@gmail.com

Payment - Bank Deposit or Paypal