Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Dieter Brand <diebrand@yahoo.com>]

Kimberly,

 

You are right about when to cut or break legumes for maximum benefit to

the soil. Usually this is at the start of flowering as you say. I read somewhere,

can't remember where, that fava beans are an exception to this rule, and

that the amount of N fixed by the root bacteria does not significantly diminish

even after flowering. But waiting the for the seeds to mature is probably too

late for maximum benefit to the soil.

 

Fava beans are a traditional crop where I live, here in the South of Portugal.

I haven't noticed that they are used for chicken feed. Mostly people use

a mixture of corn, field peas and/or different grains to feed to chicken, but

we don't have any chicken, so I haven't really paid attention.

 

Fava beans can be a delicacy. But it's a lot of work. You have to peel

each bean (throwing into hot water helps) and cut of the little germ,

which has a bitter taste. They are usually prepared with a lot of garlic,

onions, a little lard and/or choriço and sprinkled with cilantro in the

end. It is very filling, you don't need a lot. They can also be eaten

without peeling, but the taste is not as refined. For eating, you need

to harvest fava beans before they harden, just like green peas.

They can also be prepared with crème fraîche instead of choriço.

 

Dieter Brand

Portugal

Kimberly Andrews <klandrews@msn.com> wrote:

>     If you
>  are growing a legume for nitrogen fixation into the soil, then you may not want to let it go to seed.  The plant places a great amount of nitrogen from its roots into the seed.  At the first sign of flowering, I break the stems just above the ground surface to keep the nitrogen in the roots and to start using the upper portion as a mulch.  If the stems are not easily breakable (Austrain peas), then I cut them at the ground level.  
>  
> If you are not using the no-till approach, fava beans are great at firing-up a compost pile.
>  
> I know nothing about chicken feed.
>  
>  
> > Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2008 06:36:50 -0500
> > From: pbunch@cox.net
> > To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
> > Subject: [Livingontheland] Fava Beans as Chicken Feed
> > 
> > Does anyone have input on using fava beans as chicken feed? They are a good crop for us and as we will be using them for soil improvement this would be
>  a good way of getting multiple use out of the crop.
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>
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