
How to Grow & Use Fava Beans (Broad Beans): As Food & Cover Crops!
Fava Beans are such a rad crop! Also known as โbroad beansโ, these hardy annual plants are multi-use, beneficial, and easy-to-grow – totally worthy of a spot in your garden. Commonly grown as a cover crop, fava beans are nitrogen-fixers – meaning they improve soil quality by adding nitrogen to it, rather than taking away from it. The nutrient-rich edible beans and greens are delicious, and bees love the flowers! Winning, all the way around.
After hearing all of that, are you interested in growing fava beans too?
Read along to learn all about growing fava beans, which is pretty dang simple! Weโll go over the benefits of growing fava beans, their preferred growing conditions, varieties, and how to plant and care for them. Additionally, Iโll hit you with some tips for harvesting, eating, and even preserving fava beans. Finally, letโs talk about maximizing the benefits of growing fava beans – by leaving their roots in the soil, and mulching with the greens!

3 REASONS TO GROW FAVA BEANS
1) Nitrogen-fixing
Fava Beans are a member of the legume family. As with most legumes, fava beans have the ability to โfix nitrogenโ. But what does that mean exactly? Well, all plants have the ability to uptake nitrogen from the soil. That process is a normal and essential part of the plant life cycle! However, legumes do something a little extra special.
In addition to taking in nitrogen from the soil, they also have the ability to absorb and fix nitrogen from the air! They accomplish this through a beautiful symbiotic relationship with specialized bacteria called Rhizobia. The Rhizobia bacteria colonize the roots of legumes, form nodules, and draw in nitrogen – usually in excess than what the plant can use for energy. Therefore, a surplus is leftover and stored in the plant material. Additional nitrogen-fixing cover crops include peas, clover, vetch, lentil, flax, alfalfa, ryegrass, and other legumes like soybeans.

So why does this matter? Nitrogen is one of the key nutrients that all plants need to photosynthesize and healthily grow! However, nitrogen is also easily depleted in garden soil where crops are repeatedly grown, and thus needs to be replenished. Traditional agriculture systems simply add chemical fertilizers to accomplish this, which is harmful to the environment in a number of ways. Using natural, organic practices like cover crops and compost to feed our soil instead of synthetic fertilizers is a wonderful thing!
But that isnโt the only wonderful thing about favas….
2) The entire fava bean plant is edible!
Yep, you read that right! The beans, pods, leaves, you name itโฆ All edible. Sure, some parts may be less desirable to eat, such as the tougher stems or older fuzzy pods, but the other parts are incredibly yummy and versatile! Fava bean leaves taste very similar to the bean: sweet, buttery, and earthy. They are rich in vitamins and minerals like folate, manganese, copper and phosphorus. The beans themselves are an excellent source of protein and soluble fiber as well. We routinely enjoy both the beans and greens with many meals!

3) Low-fuss & Low-pressure
Fava beans are very easy to grow, as long they’re planted in the right season. They prefer mild to cool weather conditions, which weโll discuss more below. Fava beans also attract very few pests or diseases, and require minimal maintenance!
Even if you have a short growing window between hot and freezing weather (or vice versa) I still recommend planting fava beans somewhere in your garden. Letโs say unfavorable fava weather comes before the plants are mature enough to produce a fat batch of beansโฆ Oh well! For us, we view the beans themselves as bonus – like the cherry on top of all of the other benefits of growing fava beans.
Worse case scenario? When freezing or frying weather is on the horizon, harvest some of the tender fava greens to enjoy, and allow the rest of the plant to fade in place to nourish the soil. Best case scenario? Youโll be snacking on some delectable fava beansโฆ perhaps while sipping a glass of chianti. Both are worthy options.
Like I said, low pressure!
HOW TO GROW FAVA BEANS
Fava Bean Preferred Growing Conditions
Temperature
Fava beans favor weather that is not much warmer than 75ยฐF during the day. Their ideal temperature range is 60 to 65ยฐF, though they will tolerate colder temperatures down to 40ยฐF as well. This makes them perfect for fall or spring planting in most locations!
Sun & Location
Fava beans grow best in full sun, but will not flower well in hot, dry conditions. Thankfully, they grow decently well in partial shade too. Meaning, if youโre worried about temperatures occasionally climbing over 75ยฐF (especially for spring-planted favas with summer on the way), choose a planting location that receives afternoon shade or filtered sunlight throughout the day.
Fava beans can absolutely be grown in containers! Again, they’re not fussy about much. As long as you can follow the other general guidelines provided in this article, they’ll do great in a container too. We routinely grow them in half wine barrels, but have also grown them successfully in smaller fabric grow bags.
Time
From planting seeds to harvest, fava beans require an average of 3 months of growing to mature. Different varieties will vary slightly in their days to maturity; some say 75 days and some up to 100. Therefore, choose varieties that suit your optimal growing window – especially if you are hoping for a good bean harvest. Note that smaller, less mature fava beans are the most tender to eat though! So even if they donโt have time to get huge, that is totally okay.

Soil & Water
Fava beans are not picky! They donโt mind cool, clay, or deficient soil – things that other plants typically do not love. Therefore, you donโt need to worry much about the soil quality (let alone fuss with amending it) before planting fava beans. However, favas wonโt be happy with water-logged roots, so do choose a growing location and soil that can provide decent drainage. Provide regular water in order to maintain the soil moist but not soggy.
Fava Bean Varieties
The most common and popular variety of fava beans is Broad Windsor, and for a good reason! The plants are reliable and productive, and mature quickly to produce large delicious bean pods. Broad Windsor is what we primarily grow! Yet there are many other fun and unique types of fava beans out there. For example, we grew these “Extra Precoce A Grano Violetto” that develop purple beans inside their green pods! They do quickly change back to green when cooked though. Others are known to be exceptionally cold-hardy, such as Aguadulce.
We have experimented with a handful of different fava varieties over the years, but always come back to the tried-and-true Broad Windsor. Please, enjoy being more adventurous than we are!

Soaking Seeds & Planting Instructions
Once you have your fava bean seeds on hand, lets get planting! Like most beans, favas prefer to be directly sown outside. However, they arenโt as sensitive or prone to transplant shock as some beans, so if you need to start them indoors for whatever reason, that works too. Just ensure theyโre transplanted out before they become too large or root bound.
To help aid in speedy and successful germination, soak the seeds in un-chlorinated water for 12 to 24 hours prior to planting. This is a great tip for all tough, large seeds!
Sow fava bean seeds 1 to 2 inches deep in the soil, about 6 inches a part. Lightly cover, water, and keep the soil moist to assist in germination. They can be a bit slow to sprout, so be patient! Some may pop up within a few days, some may take a few weeks.

Ongoing Care & Support
After fava beans have sprouted, they need very little care. Simply water on occasion and theyโll be happy. But did you know that fava bean plants can reach 4 feet tall?! So keep that in mind when youโre choosing their planting location – since they can shade out other nearby plants! Once fava bean plants begin to get tall, and especially as they become heavy with developing beans, youโll want to provide support for them. In climates with strong wind or rain, you may even want to provide support earlier since theyโll be prone to flopping over in those conditions.
To support our fava beans, we simply put a few stakes around their planting area and run twine between them, creating a makeshift cage. Fava beans do not have tendrils that grab onto trellises like peas, nor do they wind themselves around their support structures like pole beans. You basically have to find a way to prop them up, more like tomatoes.

Harvesting Fava Beans & Greens
It is hard to go wrong when it comes to harvesting fava beans! Some folks enjoy the smaller, less mature bean pods. They even eat the whole thing, outer pod and all – like a snap pea! At this stage, the inner beans are exceptionally tender.
We generally allow the bean pods to get a bit larger before harvesting. Mature fava bean pods can reach over 6 inches long! You can tell when the inner beans are well-developed by feeling or observing the pod. As the beans grow to fill out the pod, it becomes bulbous and firm. However, the larger the fava beans, the tougher their outer skin can get. To remove the beans, pull up or twist on the bean to see if it easily disconnects from the plant. If not, use pruning snips or scissors.

The best fava greens to eat are the freshest tender growth on the tips of the plants. We typically harvest upper portions of stem and leaves about 6 to 12 inches long. As you continue to pluck beans, more will grow. As you trim the stems and foliage, it will encourage branching and fuller plants.

After Harvest or the Growing Season
This may be one of the most important points of this article: When it comes time to say goodbye to your fava bean plants, leave the roots in place! This way, the roots can decompose in the soil and feed it the nitrogen that the Rhizobia has worked so hard to store. Even more, take advantage of the nutrient-dense aboveground leaves and stems!
When fava season comes to an end, you could do a few different things. One is to simply allow the plants to die back and fade in place. This is an especially great option for fall-planted fava beans where winter is on the horizon, and you donโt intend to plant anything else there until next spring.
Another option is to cut the plants down (into pieces if you wish), and leave them on top of the soil to break down. This practice is known as โchop and dropโ mulching. Or, instead of leaving them in the same bed they grew, you could also add the fava foliage to your compost pile or mulch another area. For example, we often top our large cannabis grow bags with fava plant mulch.

To Shuck or Not to Shuck?
To answer this question, youโll have to experiment for yourself! Each gardener and fava bean officinando has their preferred way to process and eat fava beans. Again, some eat the whole outer pod! Personally, I find it too fuzzy and fibrous. Therefore, we shell our pods to reveal the inner beans. Be sure to compost or mulch with those spent outer pods.
Additionally, each individual fava bean inside the pod is wrapped with a thin skin. Some folks are hellbent on removing that skin, shucking or peeling every little bean. In my opinion, this is usually unnecessary, too time-consuming, and a waste of good protein, fiber, and flavor – particularly for the smaller and more tender ones! Do not peel the little guys. Yet the skin around the older largest beans can definitely get tough. We sometimes peel those, but not always.

EATING & PRESERVING FAVA BEANS
Eating fresh
Fava beans are versatile little vegetables. You can enjoy them sautรฉed, roasted, pan-fried, and more! Most often, we add them to our favorite cast iron wok to sautรฉ with various veggies and seasonings, and serve it all over brown rice, quinoa, lentils, or with eggs. We also routinely add them to soup. Pan-fried or roasted fava beans go particularly well with olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper, and even a little squeeze of lemon juice at the end!
For fava greens, we treat them much like kale or any other leafy green in our garden. Add handfuls of leaves to any sautรฉ, stir fry, soup, frittata, quiche, salad, or more! Fava bean greens also make for an insanely delicious, nutritious, nutty pesto – which can also be frozen to preserve. Check out our fava green pesto recipe here.

Preservation ideas
There are SO many options for preserving fava beans too! Last season, we froze a lot of them to use in future soups or sautes. A quick tip for freezing fava beans (or any food, really): Lay them out on a baking sheet, not touching, and freeze this way first for 6 to 12 hours. Then package them together into a container for long-term storage in the freezer. Freezing them individually first prevents them from sticking and clumping together later, which makes it much easier to fish out just a handful of beans when you want them!

In addition to freezing, fava beans can be pickled, fermented, or dehydrated! We will definitely be doing a little of each this season, and I will report back with recipes. In the meantime, if you need a good pickling brine recipe, check out our easy refrigerator pickled peppers. Simply swap out the peppers for fava beans instead, or any other delicious veg! Similarly, use this simple ferment recipe and replace the radishes for favas. For pickling or fermenting, I suggest to use smaller tender beans, or remove the outer skin of the tougher large beans as needed.
And that, my friends, is how you grow and use fava beans – from seed to table.
I hope this article was interesting – and inspired you to try growing fava beans at home! Please let me know if you have any questions, and feel free to spread the fava love by sharing this article. If you’re interested in learning about other ways to organically amend your soil, you may enjoy this article about how we amend our garden beds between seasons. Thanks for tuning in, and for your interest in organic gardening!



18 Comments
Lily
I bought broad beans. It grows awesome. ButI cannot taste them. I fried the freshbeanand terible taste. I learned that thereare many kibd of broad bean. Can you advice me what kind of broad bean is good taste ( note: I like eat bean when they are young. Not the seeds)
Thanks
Aaron (Mr. DeannaCat)
Hello Lily, we grow a lot of Windsor variety fava beans and we eat some small pods but most of them we let get to a larger size and only eat the bean itself. Hope you can find a variety that you can enjoy, good luck!
Amy
Do I need to protect the seedlings from chickens? We are new to having chickens and haven’t gotten the garden fenced in, just protecting certain areas for now.
Aaron (Mr. DeannaCat)
Hi Amy! You absolutely need to protect your garden from the chickens. They will usually leave tomatoes, peas, squash, and eggplant alone during the summer. However, any greens, lettuce, radish greens, cauliflower or broccoli, etc. they will usually destroy. Keep your chickens out of the garden area! Good luck!
Pamela harris
Hi, just harvesting my fava beans, great article. Do you have issues with aphids on your beans?
Aaron (Mr. DeannaCat)
Occasionally we get black aphids on our fava beans. Typically, they appear on the new growth tips of the plants and we just trim off the affected part of the branch. From there it will shoot off new growth and become bushier. If aphids remain a problem, check out Organic Aphid Control: 9 Ways to Get Rid of Aphids. Thanks you and good luck!
Oriana
I have an open bed right now and I’m not sure what to do with it. We’re in the thick of June gloom but I imagine it will burn off July and August. Considering we’re both in the same climate zone (10a), when do you typically plant your favas? Is it worth throwing some in the dormant box now? Or should I wait until fall?
Maryl
I ordered Fava beans not indicating a variety. Sweet Lorane Improved cover crop is what was sent. Are these edible? also. They are very small. I can not find an answer to that question.
Thank you.
DeannaCat
Hi Maryl! Yes, they are edible. We have actually grown them in the past too. However, we find they’re slower to develop beans and don’t produce as large of pods or beans (hence the smaller bean seeds). I say grow them anyways, but consider ordering some classic Windsor if you’re hoping for big bean harvests!
Jennifer
What pests like Fava Beans? Do I need to protect them from gophers, ground squirrels etc? If so, what would you suggest? Iโm thinking of adapting my tomato cages to protect above groundโbut do I need to worry about critters eating their root systems?
DeannaCat
Hi Jennifer – We mostly grow our fava beans in protected raised beds and wine barrels, so gophers have never been a concern… However, we did once grow a whole crop of them around the base of our avocado tree where there was definite gopher activity in the vicinity, and they didn’t bother the favas! So, in our limited experience they left them alone… but I can’t say that will always be case for sure. We don’t have squirrels in our garden. The plants occasional get aphids on the new tender grown (just snip it off) but otherwise they’re very easy and pest-free for us. As they get tall they do like some support, so tomato cages could work well! Then, if you need to wrap them in something (netting?) to block above-ground pests, that would be easy. Good luck!
Lyndsay
I’m growing favas for the first time this year because of everything you’ve posted about them… we bought a new house in June and the soil is in ROUGH shape. I planted favas in little patches all over, hoping to improve the soil and in efforts to have a little green amidst all the brown of Kansas in early spring. I planted three varieties (Broad Windsor, Extra Precoce A Grano Violetto, and Vroma) about 15 days ago. Every morning I walk around the garden, searching for the smallest sign of a sprout, always to my chagrin. I re-read this article every few days to reassure myself to “be patient…” and then TODAY I saw the tiny, shy, light green shoulders of a shoot barely peeking through the surface of the soil and I literally shrieked and did a happy dance on the patio. I just had to share – I’m so excited! Thanks for this wonderfully thorough post (as always) and for helping gardeners everywhere explore new things.
Brittany
Thank you for the great info! Weโve dabbled in growing favas in our cannabis beds but I never harvested the greens! (And we planted too late to get any beans!) Iโll be getting them in earlier this year and excited to try all the different uses! Love those nitrogen fixers!
Shannon
Thanks for the information. I’ve always been a little intimidated by fava beans, but your thorough explanation helped them seem much less daunting. I’m ordering some seeds now!
Emily
Iโm new to growing Favaโs this year, so thank you for all the great info!
Samuel Silva
I can proudly say my Portuguese heritage has allowed for generations of fava bean cultivation and harvest! I will say this is a simple, and easy to use guide for the new fava bean gardener. Thanks so much for the info! Keep the fava bean alive!
DeannaCat
Hi Samuel – thank you for the feedback! We sure do LOVE our favas – just harvested another huge basket yesterday in fact! Thanks again for reading and commenting.
Liz
Great post. I know Ive said it before but Iโm going to say it again! Thank you for being so thorough!!!