Aquadulce Fava (79 days)
Sustainably Grown
The standard fava for greens, green beans, shelled green beans and dried beans. This is a delicious meaty Italian staple. I first "discovered" Aquadulce when traveling in France. Eat the beans when young as a green bean or dried in soups.
Favas add tons of fantastic nitrogen to your soil without the use of nasty chemical fertilizers. Plant them in the fall, enjoy the blooms, but chop them into the soil before they produce a bean for maximum nitrogen fixing. That's it. Now you're ready to plant your hungry nitrogen plants like corn come summer!
Aquadulce has been hardy for us down to about 19 degrees. February is the time to plant if your "West of the Cascades". We also fall plant. Fava's don't care for extremely hot weather so treat them like you would cabbage.
My 1913 copy of California Vegetables by Wickson says "A broad bean, chiefly grown by Portuguese in the San Francisco Bay region; hardy and prolific, making free winter growth where frosts are light; sometimes in demand for the debasement of coffee".