Broad Beans
Dirty Nails has planted out his broad beans this week. The productive and very early Witkeim variety is his choice for sowing at this time of year.
The large, browny-grey seeds feel substantial in his hand, and Dirty Nails loves planting them. He places the magical pieces on the surface of the evenly raked soil in a line at 5 inch (12 cm) intervals. If he sows a double row, then he allows 8 inches (20 cm) between lines.
When he has set his seeds out as desired, he gently presses them into the soil end-on to a depth of 2 inches (5 cm), and covers them over. If it is cold Dirty Nails puts cloches over the top to keep the seedbed warmer.
Home-grown broad beans really do taste completely different to shop-bought, and are highly nutritious. With luck, a sowing this week will be producing pods of fat beans around midsummer.
Natural History In The Garden: Pied Wagtails
Small black and white birds with long black flicking-up tails and a low, undulating, dancy flight, are pied wagtails. They gather on the lawn in ones and twos, sometimes more. The pied wagtail bobs its head back and fore as it quarters the ground with rapid darting runs, occasionally jumping up acrobatically to snaffle low flying insects.
Vegetable Snippets: Some Facts About The Broad Bean
Scientifically, the broad bean is Vicia faba, also known as the fava bean. Horse bean or field bean are other alternatives, although these last two names generally refer to crops that are commonly grown as animal fodder. Broads popular for human consumption nowadays are larger-seeded varieties. Native to North Africa and Southwest Asia, these beans are believed to have been part of the European diet even before 6000 BC. They were particularly popular in the Stone Age Mediterranean region. European folklore has it that planting this crop either on Good Friday or at night-time is a harbinger of good luck.
Broad beans are rich in protein, so much so that they have been called ‘vegetable meat’. Vitamins A and C are readily available, so too phosphorous. Broads contain the cancer fighting substance lectin, so may help in this department also.