The fava bean (Vicia faba) in Canada is often misunderstood, treated as though it is strictly a southern European or Middle Eastern legume crop. I have even seen the large fava bean type labelled as a Chinese crop. In point of fact, all of Europe grew fava beans. The beans were traditionally classified according to size: V. faba major for human consumption; the smaller tick bean or horse bean, V. faba equina; and V. faba minor, again for human consumption. The small beans are virtually pea-sized, about one-quarter the size of the much-bigger broad bean.
Broad beans were an essential staple protein food for many areas of the world, from Ireland to China. They had a protein content of around 28 per cent which, weight for weight, is more than 2-½ times that of an equal amount of beef steak which is around 11 per cent protein. In Europe, fava beans were called fasola fava in Poland, fèves in France and tuinbonen in the Netherlands.
In western parts of Europe and in southern areas of Europe, Asia and Australia, fava beans are grown as a winter annual or biennial crop. Traditionally they were planted in September or October and harvested the following spring. Fava bean seedlings are very frost-tolerant up to -8 C or lower. Even when frost-damaged, like peas, they can resprout from below ground.
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In protein-poor areas of the world only 100 years ago, such as the U.K. and Ireland, the broad bean was a godsend to both humans and horses. I personally have eaten fava beans since childhood, with the exception of my time in the United States. I worked on fava beans in the 1970s in Ontario where I was able to demonstrate the bean yellow mosaic virus could be seed-borne up to 10 per cent in fava beans, despite the literature saying not so. My PhD thesis was based on aphid transmissibility of the bean yellow mosaic virus.
Since I have lived in Alberta, I have grown fava beans (broad beans) annually from 1974. I was unhappy with the commercially available home garden varieties, so I set out to develop my own fava bean. I collected Portuguese, Spanish, Chinese, Polish and British varieties. The Spanish fava bean was a very deep purple. I used the purple colour as a marker and allowed the bean collection to crossbreed. Unlike peas, fava beans intercross very easily, just like sunflowers. I selected and reselected beans based on purple-coloured seed for both yield and quality. After some 20 years I now have a high-yielding, excellent-eating purple-seeded fava bean. Since fava beans for fresh eating and freezing must be picked when they are full-sized beans, the purple-coloured seed is a perfect marker. If the seeds have started to turn purple, then they must be picked as soon as possible; otherwise, they become overmature, lowering their best eating quality. Cooked fava beans, with a little salt, pepper and butter, are a gourmet treat. They have excellent flavour and texture. The Portuguese pickle fava beans, much like cucumbers.
In the field
As a farm-crop fava beans have their problems and advantages. Presently in Prairie Canada, fava bean production in all three provinces amounts to around 50,000 acres. The world’s biggest fava bean grower is China, and the world’s biggest exporter is Australia, with around 450,000 acres. In Australia, due to its milder winter climate, the beans are fall-planted and after overwintering (June, July) in Australia, they grow very rapidly in the spring (September, October).
Fava bean yields on the Prairies have been somewhat erratic, ranging from 20 to 100 bushels per acre under ideal growing conditions. Fava beans should be planted as early as possible since they are long-season crops with very frost-tolerant seedlings. Plant at two to three inches deep in moist soils to achieve four plants per square foot or 40 plants a square metre. That comes out to about 160,000 plants per acre (400,000 per hectare).
Fava beans are close members of the wild vetch family, a common prairie legume. Consequently, they nodulate readily in Prairie soils from the natural rhizobium inoculant that’s always present. It is thought preferable to use a strain of inoculant best suited to fix nitrogen for the fava bean.
Nitrogen fertilization is not recommended. A vigorously growing crop of fava beans that is well supplied with water in well drained soils can fix up to 200 pounds or more of nitrogen.
The information on nutrient use in the table shown here was taken from an excellent Alberta Agriculture publication titled “Pulse Crops in Alberta,” Agdex 142/20–1, published in 1999 — a must-have text for any legume grower.
Fava beans have a remarkable ability to fix nitrogen but under Prairie conditions they must be planted as early as possible due to their long-season growth requirements. Under dry or drought conditions, fava beans of all types grow very poorly and set little or no seed. This poor growth under dry conditions is despite the fact that they have a taproot system. Ideally fava beans do very well under irrigation or wet, cool summers in the central and more northern areas of the Prairies.
For human consumption, people prefer the tannin-containing types, which, by the way, are fine for cattle, but not for pigs or poultry. The tannin-free or small-seeded “Snowbird” types are the preferred variety. Tannin-free cultivars have white seeds and white flowers as opposed to the old-style large beans that have black and white flowers.
Much research has recently been carried out on fava beans and peas as to their suitability to the many proposed plant protein extraction industries for human consumption. Fava beans have an advantage over other legumes in that they have a very mild flavour — so much so that they are under research evaluation as a whipped cream substitute.
As far as diseases are concerned, they seem to be minor problems in Canada. I have seen ascochyta blight and in particular chocolate spot caused by both Botrytis fabae and Botrytis cinerea. I have seen rust (Uromyces fabae) once. In Europe, these four diseases can be major problems, but so far, they seem to be of little consequence in Prairie Canada.
Insect pests of fava beans are not numerous, but the black bean aphid (aphis fabae) can be a very destructive pest of the bean crop. The aphid is common in Europe and present in North America, but I have yet to see a black bean aphid infestation. Lygus bugs can be a pest of fava beans, not much in terms of yield loss, but when feeding on young bean pods they can leave distinct black dots on mature beans.
Back in my plant disease diagnostic days with Alberta Agriculture, I used fava bean seedlings to detect soil and compost contaminated with picloram. Picloram is used extensively on the Prairies to control roadside weeds and for weed control in permanent pastures. I found the fava bean, via young seedling shoot symptoms, could detect picloram at levels as low as one part per billion. I advised horticulturalists that anyone contemplating use of farm manure compost should first use fava beans to check the compost for picloram. The herbicide is very destructive on potatoes, tomatoes and all members of the pulse crop group. It does an excellent job of roadside weed and shrub control, but unfortunately roadside hay crops that received it can be very destructive in farm and home gardens.
Fava beans, like lentils and peanuts, also have somewhat of a dark side. During the Second World War the British government provided fava bean products in its dietary rations. It was found a small percentage of individuals of Mediterranean origin contracted a blood disorder called favism. It produced an allergic-like reaction to the fava bean and could even show up among these individuals if they walked into a growing fava bean crop.
For us older individuals, here’s an Abraham Lincoln quote: “In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count, it’s life in your years.”
