I whipped up this tasty, colorful salad last week from my first bunch of homegrown fava beans. It's a variation on a recipe I found here. I used fresh goat cheese, because that's what was in the fridge, and added a bit of lemon thyme from the herb garden along with the fresh parsley. The salad was a nice, simple way to eat favas, which is key since fava beans themselves take a while to prepare.
Speaking of taking a while, until recently, I was afraid my fava plants were never going to make pods. The stalks grew like crazy and made lots of flowers, but the bean pods didn't appear until mid-March. Happily, when they did finally appear, the pods quickly grew big and thick.
I think I'll get one more decent harvest from the favas. I had hoped to get more, but I think the weird Spring weather--warm, cold, warm, cold--may be confusing the plants a little bit. I might also space them a bit farther apart if I plant favas next year. I suspect the plants might make more pods if they have more room and aren't competing with each other for nutrients.
Still, it was a successful and satisfying first fava crop. I'll definitely grow fava beans again, especially since they can be hard to find fresh at the store.
I never really thought about people growing and eating fava beans because the only place I ever heard of them was in SILENCE OF THE LAMBS.