Page 18 - ALG Issue 4 2024

VEGETABLES
First: A Bit of History
BEANS
The botanical name for broad beans is Vicia Fabia.They are a species of vetch and a member of the legume family. Throughout Britain, and most of the Mediterranean, these were the only beans known until the New World’s bountiful cache of legumes was revealed to explorers and eastern voyagers. Even that French staple, cassoulet, was made with broad beans before the haricot crossed the Atlantic.
The broad bean was domesticated in the Near East in about 3000 BC: first gathered, and then farmed, in Afghanistan and the Himalayan foothills. As fava (or faba) it has been grown wherever man has made his settlements if the growing conditions have been right.The Egyptians, the Romans and the Greeks all cultivated broad beans, and to this day each year’s new crop causes great excitement in rural communities.
The sage Greek philosopher, Pythagoras, supposedly forbade the eating of broad beans because they contained the souls of the dead. During the Middle Ages, they were the most consumed veg in Spain.
Uses
The young fava beans, eaten raw or cooked as soon after picking as possible, are the most delicious.The beans, with the outer seed coat removed, can be eaten raw or cooked. In young plants, the outer seed coat can be eaten, and in very young plants, the seed pod can be eaten. As with other beans, broad beans are rich in protein and provide moderate amounts of iron, thiamine and riboflavin.
It is worth noting, however, that some people of a Mediterranean background suffer favism, a serious anaemic condition called haemolytic anaemia that results from eating broad beans.
As well as food for humans, they can
also be used as animal feed and as a green manure crop, as they add nitrogen to the soil by means of nitrogen fixing bacteria
in nodules attached to the roots. It is for this reason that, at the end of the cropping period, the stems are cut off at ground level and not pulled out of the ground, leaving the roots in the soil.
BROAD
18 | Issue 4 2024 |
“Are broad beans the next wonder vegetable? Food for thought”