Fava Bean Spring Salad

-->

Last spring I wrote a post about eatingand growing favabeans and included three recipes: a soup, a fava puree, and fava crostini. Those are all delicious, but in that post I mentioned that my favorite way to eat fava beans is in a simple salad. Here is that recipe.

The tender spring fava beans are wonderfully buttery -  we grow them every year in our suburban garden and watch the pods swell with great anticipation. In our family, the favorite way to eat them is to make a simple but delicious warm salad by adding fresh chopped tarragon from the garden, diced red onion and cooked new potatoes. A lemony dressing (of course!) is the perfect finish.

Fava Bean Spring Salad

-->

You Will Need:

1 cup shelled fresh fava beans (about 1 lb fava bean pods)

1 cup cubed new potatoes

¼ cup diced red onion

1-2 tablespoon chopped fresh tarragon (or parsley or basil)

Prepare the Fava Beans:

Shell the fava beans out of the pods while you heat water and boil the potatoes until they are almost tender, about 5 minutes. Add the shelled fava beans to the boiling potatoes and cook for 4-5 minutes until the fava beans are tender. The fava beans may be different sizes, so test a big one. Make sure the potatoes are also thoroughly cooked. Drain the potatoes and favas, and let them cool.

Mix and Serve:

You can serve the salad warm or chilled. To serve, mix in the diced onion and chopped tarragon, and toss with the dressing. Mound onto tender lettuce leaves or other salad greens, if desired. This salad keeps well in the refrigerator for a couple of days. Serves 2-4.

Lemon Mustard Dressing

Whisk together:

1 heaping teaspoon Dijon mustard, such as Maille

1-2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Pinch of salt

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil ; add more oil to taste as needed

Growing Fava Beans

Fava plants like cool weather and they do well grown over the winter in our temperate coastal California climate, and they tolerate frost. I plant them in October for edible beans beginning in April. In California they are also planted in early spring for a crop in the summer along the cooler coast in the north-central area.

-->

They are very popular used as a soil-building cover crop where they are turned under into the soil after flowering, before the beans set. But we love to eat them, so we use the harvested plants as a green manure to add to our compost pile.

We also let a few pods dry on the stalks to use for next season's seed. It's a win - win. 

See my previous fava bean post for more.

This post was published on Eat Drink Better.

Photos: Patricia Larenas, Urban Artichoke

Your Edible Garden as Wildlife Habitat

-->

To have a wildlife friendly garden, you don’t necessarily have to plant only native plants. And I’m not talking about the big critters, such as deer and raccoons, but the small and even tiny wildlife that really count in the garden ecosystem: bees, butterflies, wasps, and other beneficial insects, plus soil organisms, birds, lizards, and frogs. These are the “boots on the ground” for a healthy organic, pesticide and herbicide free garden.

Here are some guidelines to help make your garden a thriving ecosystem where you can harvest your veggies too.

Fremontia and pyracantha attract bees and birds, and provide habitat for nesting

Plan for Diversity: Use Edibles, Natives, and Ornamentals

In her excellent book, The Habitat Garden Book, Wildlife Landscaping for the San Francisco Bay Region, author Nancy Bauer recommends using a simple and flexible planting formula of one third each native plants, edibles, and ornamental plants. With a little research you can identify attractive flowering and fruiting plants native to your area that do well in suburban and urban landscapes, and ornamental plants that encourage pollinators and other beneficials.

In our garden (above) a Fremontia or California Flannel Bush, is a favorite with bumble bees, and the Pyracantha behind it attracts honey bees with profuse white flowers.  Birds love it for the dense cover and berries it provides in the winter.

Leveraging Your Edibles

After I learned that many culinary herbs are well loved by different types of bees, I let my herbs go to flower, including parsley, (top photo above) which attracts insect predators. You can use this to your advantage in the garden. If you prefer to harvest herbs before they flower (for better flavor) plant enough so that you can let some go to bloom. Some of the favorite flowering herbs for bees are oregano, thyme, sweet marjoram, parsley and basil.

Many edible flowers are also great for companion planting among your vegetables (below).

Edible flowers: calendula, nasturtium, chives, and borage

-->

Create Habitat

Wildlife needs food, water, and shelter. Shrubs and trees attract birds that will control the insect population, and if you provide fresh water in birdbaths, they’ll move in almost instantly. We found that removing our lawns and replacing them with mulched areas was a huge bird magnet. They love to scratch around for bugs in the mulch, and take dust baths in the bare patches of soil. Lizards appreciate having ground cover in a rock garden or a small brush pile, and they'll eat their share of insects. Butterflies like very shallow water (a saucer with stones) or a mud puddle to drink from.

As Bauer points out, an overly tidy garden has less wildlife habitat. Leave some leaves on the ground for a natural mulch that decomposes and enriches the soil and gives small creatures a home.

Take Time to Plan

You don't have to get it done all at once, but you can gradually transform your garden into your very own wildlife sanctuary and enjoy watching nature in action, up close and personal.

This post was also published on Eat Drink Better

Photos: Patricia Larenas

Edible Garden Photo Essay

In this photo essay I want to share some special images from my ediblegarden. I spent Earth Day working in my garden and as always I was inspired by the beauty of our edible plants.

I can't think of a better way to honor our planet than to take time to appreciate and cherish its natural beauty, and that may be as nearby as our own backyards. It's worthwhile slowing down to savor the the unexpected treasures we find there waiting for us, every day.

Mourning doves built a nest in our leafy grape arbor and stayed all summer. It’s a bonus that our organic garden is safe haven that attracts wildlife.

Winter squashes always amaze with their gorgeous textures, colors, and enormous diversity. This summer I'm excited about growing GuatemalanBlue Banana and Stella Blue Hokkaido. Check heirloom seed sellers for unusual varieties to grow.

This Lemon Cucumber and Cranberry Bean both trellised up our tall Jerusalem Artichokes last summer. The trio seemed very happy growing together!

Violet artichokes (Violetto shown above) are truly dramatic and stunning, especially the first time you see them on the huge bushy plant.

Scarlet Runner Bean flowers are showy and beautiful climbing up on a trellis and can be grown in a container, as in the photo above. I love climbing beans and grow them on pole teepees or trellises every year.

May you have a happy Earth Day every day!

This post was also published on Eat Drink Better.

Photos: Patricia Larenas, Urban Artichoke