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By Donna LaPre
Special to the Rappahannock News
There’s still time this season to bring some adventure to the dependable yet perhaps hum-drum offerings of your vegetable garden by trying something new. How wonderful it would be if every gardener tried at least one new vegetable each year and added in this way to bio-diversity. By trialling and sampling a new plant food each season one may encounter foreign countries, be immersed in a bit of history or flirt with some new culinary skills— all with a packet of seeds!
Beans are so easy to grow: large seeds which rarely fail to germinate (given correct soil temperatures) and plenty to harvest. Fava beans, originally from the Mediterranean lands are the earliest bean to come to table. Favas may be planted as soon as the ground can be worked (just like peas) either in February or March, in this area. These legumes need cool weather to grow, unlike the pole and bush beans more familiar to gardeners.
Beautiful to look at, fava flowers are white and purple with black spots, and plants should be staked with brush to prevent flopping over. To eat these beans, the pods should be picked when firm and shiny, at 5”6” long. Shell the beans from the pods, then blanch the individual beans to loosen the outer skins. Then, sautee’ them in olive oil with a smashed garlic clove for about five minutes, adding salt, fresh chopped rosemary and lemon juice. Abundant Life Seed Foundation offers an incredibly large selection of favas and Seeds of Change carries a few types.
Good lettuce for salad becomes impossible to grow once our hot and humid summers arrive. Needing cool (40-60 degree) weather to be at its sweet, crisp and tender best , lettuce turns flabby, bitter and runs to seed here, sometimes as early as May. Arugula, another favorite salad green gets a bit too sharp and bolts easily, too. It’s a long stretch until the first cucumbers, tomatoes and peppers are ready for refreshing warmweather salads.
However, there are several leaves
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