Growing and eating Broad beans

So I picked up a packet of broad beans last year (I'm not sure why) and am contemplating sowing them this year in one of my 3x8ft beds.

After much thought of what to grow this year I still have one bed free until July when I plan to plant my leeks. Could I get away with planting some broad beans here and having them finish by July or August time? Is this a crop that will give me a decent yield in such a small space too?

However I haven't had the best start with them culinary. My local takeaway used to chuck them in my vegetable balti and they seemed to be very hard and not very appetizing or easy to eat. Is this how all broad beans taste and what I should expect from them? I'm hoping that I can put them in stews later in the year (the variety I have say that they are suitable for freezing) but do broad beans taste any better fresh than frozen?

 

Hi Jane

I grew them last year for the first time. I started them off in the greenhouse (in toilet paper inners) and planted them out in April. The bees loved the flowers and I was harvesting them, I think from July onwards. If you pick them when they are quite tender, par boil them for a couple of minutes, allow then to cool and then you can shell them which leaves you with lovely tender flesh. You can eat them in their outer shells, but like you, find them too tough.

I'll definitely be growing them again this year, sowing early March.

 

I'm growing them for the first time. I planted them in November and they are about 8 inches now. I find that broad beans are best fresh, but are hard to get at supermarket/green grocers this is why I am trying my own this year.

Rusty.