We grow broad beans in our winter garden. This year we tried a red-flowering variety, an old bean called “Crimson-Flowered” Broad Bean. The flowers are really very pretty!
These photos were taken in August, because now the big fat pods have all been harvested and the beans either eaten or prepared for storage. I helped collect the last a few days ago. Then I sat in a sheltered sunny spot to open all the pods and gather the beans. The same spot where the black snake was photographed a few days earlier! The snake was upset because she could not slip out through the gate whilst holding the large lizard in her mouth. She had to swallow it first, then make her escape from the garden.
shelling beans in the sun
After shelling the beans we turned most of them into felafel mix, but kept some in the fridge and some in the freezer whole. Here is the whole process:
Now you want to see us making felafel, and I forgot to capture that part … but we shaped the mix into small balls, fried them in shallow olive oil, and ate them with a tahini/lemon juice sauce. This is one of the really special garden treats, always best in spring, but still good during the summer when the frozen mix is thawed and cooked up!
You might enjoy this Felafel poem I found … written by a grade 7 student Alma Saddi:
“Falafel is yummy
falafels in my tummy
I’m not hungry anymore
I’ll walk out of the kitchen door
I stare…
At the light brown chair
it reminds me of… falafel
I walk into the kitchen door
Wanting more and more and more
I fill my tummy once again
i’ve eaten like a starving hen!
oh falafel u r yummy
oh falafel you’ve filled my tummy!”
-Alma Saddi, grade 7
dadirridreaming 
ma quante belle cose hai nel tuo giardino, Cristina! deliziosa la poesia!
But how many good things you have in your garden, Cristina! delicious poetry!
do you eat felafel too Ven?
That looks really yummy. I might have to try making it. Do you think you could chop it in a blender?
I noticed you mentioned a winter garden. What temperatures do you have during the winter and how much sun? This intrigues me.
Love the poem too!
hi Deb, our mid-winter temperatures are between 5 and 20 C (40-68F), usually lovely warm sunny days, especially in our sheltered north-facing garden … yes it should work in a blender too, it is traditionally made with dried broad beans but we love it with fresh ones.
Sounds very yummy.
sure is! like normal felafel but about 100x more delicious 🙂
What a treat to eat produce from your own garden.
we have always lived this way, garden to table, healthy exercise and healthy food … harder for city folk though 🙂
Definitely. What I miss most is a garden – and the climate to grow vegetables all year round in it.
maybe one day you will have the chance again 🙂
Looks like a fine harvest…did I mention I don’t like snakes. 🙂
so I mentioned the snake again, I was rather proud of her, a resourceful creature 🙂
Taste better from your own garden! The recipe looks delicious. Lovely poem 🙂
next time you see fresh broad beans give it a try Amy!
I love this! I guess I’ve only had falafel with chickpeas before! Why not? I am going to look into the possibility of growing the same broad beans in my garden. The flowers are so pretty!!
I must confess the pods on the normal ones were larger, but don’t let that stop you Debra, they are really pretty, and delicious!
I’m not sure if even that could get broad beans inside me! What a fab poem 🙂
a true treat Gilly, if only you could magically taste them you would be an instant convert 😀
Those Felafel balls sound really yummy, Christine. What a good harvest you had. 🙂
Yum. I love felafel. I’ve only eaten the generic chickpea felafel, and from which I suffer if I eat too many, which I usually do, as the G.O. eats felafel only from time to time and in moderation… I never knew felafel could be made with broad beans. I think fresh broad bean felafel might even be in favour with the G.O. Another plant on the list for my one-day garden – the Crimson-Flowered” Broad Bean worth having the vege garden just for the gorgeous flowers.
The snake spooked me, but I love fresh broad beans, Christine 🙂 Looks pretty easy to make, too, and a cute poem for extra value!
glad you enjoyed the broad beans Jo, and it is easy to make, but be warned, it will become an expected delicacy once you try it!
What a great post, Christine. I am not into cooking, still someday I will come back here. 🙂
Fantastic Christine. Those bean flowers look so pretty. 🙂
Nothing like growing your own food in your own garden, then preparing it from scratch in your own kitchen and filling your own tummy with your own bounty (or would that be Mother Nature’s bounty?) :=)
I have never grown broad beans but lately have come to love them. A friend introduced me to a broad bean snack you can buy here…dried and coated in a spicy mix. I was stunned when she told me they were broad beans. I am so going to try this one. Are the beans hard to grow Christine ?
hi Jo, no, they like cool weather, so here we plant in autumn and harvest in spring … we have only been growing them in the last ten years 🙂 Felafel are often made from dried broad beans or chick peas, but are so much better made with fresh beans if you have them! Good to hear from you again … I have been absent for a while, but not as long as you!
Such fun – the poem, too 🙂
Lovely post Christine! I love felafel. Don’t remember the last time I cooked anything from my garden though…..heck, I haven’t had a garden for over two decades now 😀
S is devoted to his garden, I would like less, but that is the way of things 🙂