Aquadulce Broad beans - what a flop.

[bearded bloke]

Re BB - I'm quite keen to try these ones - BROAD BEAN LUNGA DELLE CASCINE

However, they only supply in 1kg packs for £15!

You could import a normal packet direct to your door from ...... Italian Seed and Tool Fava Bean Delle Cascine they will be well traveled

[zazen999]

Ginge gave me some crimson flowered ones a few weeks back after our soiree in Yorkshire - and I sowed them a couple of weeks later and I noticed last night that the crimson flowers are just showing. This is going to cause mayhem on our plot - the purple podded peas were exciting enough - let alone crimson flowered broadies.

[chris]

They sound fabulous. How do you usually cook them, zaz (or anyone else). Boiled just doesn't seem to cut it, but I'm determined to like them!!!

[salilah]

Why? That seems silly

They said it was a commercial variety, so they only did the large containers <sigh>

[salilah]

They sound fabulous. How do you usually cook them, zaz (or anyone else). Boiled just doesn't seem to cut it, but I'm determined to like them!!!

I've grown Red Epicure which is white flowers but red beans - if you steam them they sort of keep their colour (well, actually, they go a bit grey!)
Normally I steam BB - rather than boil
or eat them raw with a bit of good olive oil and a few slices of pecorino - yum!

[salilah]

You could import a normal packet direct to your door from ...... Italian Seed and Tool Fava Bean Delle Cascine they will be well traveled

Nice one! Unfortunately at $4 for 60 seeds (fine) plus $22 postage (ulp) I think I'd be better off with the 1kg from Franchi!!

S

[zazen999]

They sound fabulous. How do you usually cook them, zaz (or anyone else). Boiled just doesn't seem to cut it, but I'm determined to like them!!!

I cook them by throwing in with rice or potatoes; I love a fresh warm potato and broadie salad [with some mayo or yoghurt and some spices stirred in]

[bearded bloke]

Nice one! Unfortunately at $4 for 60 seeds (fine) plus $22 postage (ulp) I think I'd be better off with the 1kg from Franchi!!

never looked at the postage sorry will research more suppliers & more thoroughly.

[Two_Sheds]

How do you usually cook them

Steamed lightly, then tossed in a spicy salad dressing

[chris]

Hmm, I'll try steaming next time. Do you remove the outer skin of the bean? I find after boiling it for a bit, they're slightly loose, and grey - if torn open the bean halves inside are bright green.

[Two_Sheds]

^ I don't let them grow big enough to get a skin on, but proper chefs do take the skin off, yes

[Alison]

^ I don't let them grow big enough to get a skin on, but proper chefs do take the skin off, yes

Same for me too - life's too short to skin but the young ones are truely lovely lightly steamed. Have been eating them mixed with peas and mange tout and a few early beans and me and OH have loved them - really yummy

[Ricardo]

Yeah - all this is fine and dandy for you lucky veggers that have successful crops...
I just dug out my Vale Emerald spuds after 4 months and got about 1 1/2 lbs out of 5 tubers.
After the Aqualdulce Debacle I might just go back to buying from Tesco.
This is only my second year at this veg malarky. Last year was encouraging - this year everything is rubbish.
Despite digging in Chicken poo, fish blood and bone and stable manure to the veg patch and raised beds over the autumn/winter and adding water saving stuff to my hanging baskets I have tumbling toms (Maskota and Yellow tumbler) that aren't tumbling, Gardners Delight that aren't delighting me yet and Boltardy that still aren't producing.
Last year I just planted into virgin ground and had good results.
The empty BB's were the real crusher.
Grump.
Its really not the financials, its just the crushing disappintment when you get nothing from just about everything you've nurtured and after months of doing what everybody says you should do.
I'm really down with this.
I need an uplifting variety of anything that I can plant to stop me just buying from the supermarket - any suggestions gladly accepted.

[rustylady]

Reading your last post Ricardo, I think you may have overdone the feeding. Chicken poo, BFB AND manure? I think this will have encouraged soft leafy growth instead of the stuff we want to eat. Plants produce seeds and tubers in order to reproduce themselves so if they're growing away happily they probably won't feel the need to produce the goods! BTW where are you growing - allotment, back garden, raised beds or what?

[zazen999]

Yes, fruiting plants need potassium based nutrients and root based plants need phosphorus based nutrients. I never feed things like broadies; they just get what the soil offers.

I also suspect far too much nitrogen and too little of the other nutrients.