Description

This magical fava bean grex boasts the spectrum of colors and patterns that fava beans have to offer—purples, greens, yellows, reds in solids, speckles, splotches, fingerprints and more! Why settle for one color or pattern when you can grow a rainbow? What’s more, this fava bean grex also has a range of flower colors from whites to browns to purples so you can enjoy a spectrum of color before the beans are produced!

Fava beans can be eaten fresh in the pod when young or as large green beans removed from the full size pods which become stringy when they are larger. Many people prefer to eat fava beans green but our family consumes them as a dry bean throughout the year.

Mature fava beans, both green and dry, have a relatively tough outer coating or shell which is more chewy than the inner bean that is soft and delightfully mushy. Some people dislike that texture and opt to peel the outer shell from the bean before consuming or further preparation. Our family is doesn’t mind, and while it was a little odd at first, we enjoy the chewiness of the large beans when cooked in stews, chilis and other robust dishes. The bean offers its own unique texture which is fun and adds more layers of interest in an otherwise “mushy” stew.

We have also ground or mashed cooked fava beans to ferment fava miso and fava hummus. Both are exceptionally delicious!

Fava leaves are also edible and taste delicious. They are a bit nutty and gentle in texture, somewhat like spinach. I enjoy eating a lot of fava leaves in salads and cooked like spinach in stir fries and egg dishes.

When I grow fava beans I am often asked if it is for a cover crop. No! I enthusiastically reply, because we really love the dry beans for cooking which are quite substantial in size. In our climate, which is quite hot and arid and with soils that dry out relatively fast in the summer, the fava bean, a cool weather crop is very suitable as a staple bean because it requires far less irrigation than other beans which must be planted after all danger of frost has passed and by then the soils are drying out quickly. When regular green beans are just being planted, fava beans are already nearly full sized and flowering.

When we harvest the beans from the plants I believe the fava plants are still enriching the soils they grow in, though probably not as much as if we had tilled it in as a cover crop while they are blooming. After the beans have matured and when the plants’ leaves have dropped in the late summer, fava leaves quickly cycle nutrients back into the soil. The plant stalks themselves create a nice amount of biomass that also break down within about a full season. They can be lifted out and composted or mulched in place like a loose hay.

I started this fava bean grex in 2019, originally inspired by Joseph Lofthouse, the “father” of modern landrace gardening. I started growing two varieties of fava beans together—Joseph’s Lofthouse Landrace Fava Beans and Andean Fava Mix gifted to us by Don Tipping of Siskiyou seeds. Each year since then I added at least one new variety to the mix including Gold Elio, Santa Isabel, Sweet Lorane, Aquadulce, Black Russian, Urkupina and others.

As a grex the distinct fava bean varieties are interplanted with each other and the bees are encouraged to promiscuously pollinate the beans so that new hybrids can occur. If you happen to notice any new, interesting or unusual style of bean grown out from this grex that may be a hybrid, please let me know!

Aside from offering diverse traits & beauty, grexes in general are more genetically diverse than any single standard garden variety and offer more opportunity for resilience and adaptability to a wide range of climates, soils, gardening styles and more.

I’ve been selecting my beans for maximum diversity and beauty. As such, each year I plant the best of the best seeds so that they can have a chance to multiply. Each year the grex keeps getting better and better!

This variety is named in honor of my father, Fabio. In recent years past, as part of my research on fava beans I learned that the Spanish name Fabio was originally derived from Fabianus, a very prominent and influential Roman family that excelled at growing fava beans. Fabianus itself was derived from “faba” which means fava bean, one of the most important and sacred crops of the time. Indeed fava beans are one of the earliest domesticated staple crops and some scientists believe fava beans may have been domesticated as early as 8,250 BCE.

So to be named Fabio after the beautiful, reliable, delicious, sacred bean of sustenance is quite an honor. My father gifted Fabio to me as my own middle name. I return the honor by naming this beautiful fava bean grex after him and now we live out our namesakes serendipitously.

Our family enjoys eating the fava beans so much that I originally wasn’t going to offer these beans for sale. But after checking in with my heart, he said to share them so that others can appreciate these beautiful beans too! I am excited and honored to share a limited amount of these fava beans with you.

Note: Bean colors and patterns will vary and what you receive in your packet may not look exactly like the beans you see in the photos. The first photo of favas in a bowl is probably most closely representative of the variety of colors and patterns of beans we are shipping this year, but every packet will vary. Thanks for understanding!

Health note: A very small percentage of the human population suffer from favism, a genetic disposition that can cause health issues when eating fava beans, especially raw fava beans, but possibly cooked too. When trying fava beans for the first time, take caution and eat only small amounts increasing gradually, and by all means don’t eat large amounts of raw fava beans. You can read more about what I’ve learned and my thoughts on favism in this article on fava beans. I am not a health expert, please do your own research.

Details

Lifecycle: Annual
Lifespan: 1 season
Hardiness zones: 4-10 (USDA)
Habitats: Not known in the wild
Plant size: 2 ft wide by 4 ft tall
Light: Full sun or part shade
Soil: All soil types, fertile soil preferred
Water: Regular moisture
Seeds per packet: 20 seeds

Seed Starting

Fava beans are direct sowed about 1-2 inches deep in cool soils.

Fava beans can be overwintered in zone 7 and above. Colder climates will need to plant fava beans in the late winter or as early as the ground is workable. Unlike many other beans, fava beans are cold germinators and grow well in cold temperatures. Plant them no later than you would plant peas in your climate.

For our zone 7b climate I prefer to plant fava beans in early to mid October, but sometimes I don’t get to it until early November. By December they have at least poked their head through the soil and continue growing very slowly and develop a strong root system underground until late winter/early spring when things warm up more and they really pick up growth. The latest I want to plant fava beans in our climate is February.

Keep in mind that fava beans can rot easily in cold, wet soils. We have an area in our garden that does not have good drainage in the winter. When I plant fava beans in those areas, I mound the soil a bit and plant them on the mounds so that they have some drainage and do not rot.

Cultivation

Fava beans grow well in cool weather and start flowering and setting pods in early spring. Fava beans don’t set beans in hot weather, around the time temperatures are regularly above 80 F. Make sure the soil stays fairly moist for the favas while they are making beans.

Harvest

Fava beans pods can be harvested and eaten green when the pods are small. When the pods are larger they will be stringy but at that stage the individual large beans can be eaten green.

For dry beans wait until the pods dry on the plant and become crispy to the touch. Once all the pods dry up the plant will quickly desiccate, in hot weather anyway, shed its leaves and become standing sticks with pods attached. Harvest the pods as soon as they are dry and shell them to get the beans.

Propagation

Fava beans are grown from seed.

Seed Saving

Harvest the seed pods as described above in “Harvest”. For small amounts of seeds shelling by hand is easy enough. For large quantities, thresh the seeds and pods thoroughly, winnow with a fan and screen as needed.

In many climates fava beans are eaten by fava bean weevils which will burrow a hole into beans and eat some portion of it, usually rendering it inviable. The best thing to do is make sure the fava beans are bone dry and then freeze them for at least a few days to kill any weevils. I usually give them a week in the freezer just to be sure. In our region, if I don’t get the beans into the freezer soon after harvest the damage will increase with time, so time is of the essence unless you’re going to eat them right away.