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[Bill Jones <billj AT harborside.com>]

EarthNSky wrote:

> clhw wrote:
>  
>
> > Having never heard of fava beans, I decided to look them up. One book
> > I have shows a sketch of them and says they resemble lima beans, but
> > are longer and wider, thus the other name of "broad beans", which I
> > had also not heard. 
They're also called tic beans, bell beans, and many people in America 
know them as horse beans, if at all.

> > I looked up the English word "bean" in my Spanish
> > dictionary and found "haba" as the entry for "lima bean".
It's used for lima bean too now, but since "haba" actually comes from 
the Latin word "fava" (the Latin word is related to the Greek for 
lentil, "phake" from which comes the genus name of new-world beans, 
Phaseolus), and this word existed long before Spaniards knew about New 
World beans, the original meaning cannot be lima bean.

When playing Scrabble in Mexico when I was a kid I found that the other 
kids did not know the word "haba" (which I only knew from a 
dictionary).  Their big sister had to explain it to them.

The first time I actually saw one, an Italian guy was arguing with his 
deaf mother one day at the market; apparently she liked favas and he 
didn't.  I grew the first one I ever ate, I think.  They have such hefty 
pods that I'd be way too cheap to conside buying them green in the pods.

> > There are
> > also some regional names for beans listed, but the main entry is
> > "frijole". Where I grew up, in Texas, "frijoles" were synonymous with
> > chili beans and kidney beans. Favas are not sold around here, and I
> > don't know that I've ever tasted one. It sounds like a regionally
> > popular food to me. Is that accurate?
> >    
>
> My experience was the same as yours Lynn.  I'd never seen one, or seen a
> seed packet for them. I had never heard of them before the movie.  I
> don't think they are grown here in the South much for some reason.  Mine
> did really well though..planted in the Fall, harvested in early Spring.
>  I am almost embarrassed to admit that I did not know about the double
> shelling thing, and I ate them in the skins..lol..perhaps that is why I
> did not like them??  Ya think? LOL
>  
Green favas don't need skinning, but like peas, they must be picked at 
their absolute prime when young and green to be good.  I don't like them 
much plain, but with bacon and onions or such they're much better, just 
like peas.  They're not bad in minestrone, except it's the wrong time of 
year in May.  I tend to regard it as a waste to pick green favas, 
especially since there aren't many cheap dry beans these days.

It dawned on me today that the yellowish split favas seen in Mexican 
markets are probably cured with limewater, just like hominy for masa, to 
make the skins fall off.  I made what effort time allowed to research it 
today.  I found a promising PDF that would have taken forever to load.  
I think they talked about pearling barley and peeling potatoes the same 
way too.  Tonight I'll give it the ol' college try by googling on "cal" 
(lime) and "habas", to see if I can bypass the BS.

Bill
S. Oregon coast