Focus on… Broad beans

WITH autumn-sown varieties ready now, and even some seed varieties started off this week cropping come September, there’s more to the humble broad bean than you’d think…

Keep those flavours coming

If you’re like me, you’ll be eyeing up a bed of autumn-sown ‘Aquadulce Claudia’ – the benchmark for autumn sowing. It’s super-hardy, so it will get through all but the very wettest winters (waterlogging and sub-zero temperatures can cause rotting), especially on freedraining soils.

There are four main types of broad bean: Seville (autumn-sown types), Longpod (such as ‘Exhibition Longpod’, with seven or so seeds per pod), Windsors (such as ‘Green Windsor’, the standard spring-sowing types) and Fan-podded (such as ‘The Sutton’, with multiple pods per cluster on compact plants).

“You’ll be eating fresh beans from June to October”