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Handbook adapted by other cultures

Community Seed Saving Book for the Pacific

Clearly written and illlustrated, the book gives practical guide for saving seeds in the villages of the Pacific.

Seed Savers Handbook Translation Into Macedonian

The translation was done by bulgarian seedsavers. If you have any comments please email Michel@seedsavers.net

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Seed Savers Handbook

This is a complete reference for growing, preparing and conserving 117 traditional varieties of food plants. Written especially for Australian and New Zealand conditions in 1993 by

Michel and Jude Fanton, founders of The Seed Savers' Network.

The Seed Savers' Handbook has 180 pages with stunning original illustrations. Translations into Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Khmer and Bulgarian. 45,000 sold worldwide.

Order the Handbook on-line now.

BROAD BEAN

Broad beans are a hardy bush. They are also called Horse beans, and in northern Africa, where a smaller version is common, Tick beans.

Plant Names

Botanical Family:

LEGUMINOSAE

Common Name:

BROAD BEAN

Genus:

Vicia

Species:

fava

About the Name:

vicia was the name for vetch in Latin and fava for the broad bean itself.

Origins:

Broad beans have been cultivated since prehistoric times in Europe. They were unearthed in the ancient city of Troy and found in Egyptian tombs and with Bronze Age artefacts in Switzerland. Their exact origin has therefore been hard to determine. It is recorded that the Romans used them as voting tokens and that they reached China by the first century AD. Before the explorers brought the common bean back from the Americas, the only bean that Europeans and Middle Easterners knew was the broad bean. Folk (or primitive) varieties grow in the Sahel, the southern part of the Sahara Desert, in poor agricultural lands.

Plant Description:

Broad beans are a hardy bush. They are also called Horse beans, and in northern Africa, where a smaller version is common, Tick beans.

Variety Notes:

The Geneflow journal (1989) mentions that cultivars collected in Sicily, Portugal, and Cyprus show a great diversity of type and landrace. Wide variation was evident in respect of the size and shape of the grains as well as the earliness of the crop. For colder areas, there are the long-podded types with up to eight beans in a pod. They are hardy and are ready for planting from early through to late autumn. Examples are Early Long Pod, Polar and Acquadulce. Longfellow produces up to ten beans in a pod. Red Epicure is grown for its chestnut flavour and colour and is hardy and heavy cropping. The Windsor or Broad-Pod beans will not survive winter in frosty areas but will die back and shoot from the roots in spring. Their pods have up to five beans in them and they have a pronounced flavour. The dry seeds of Green Windsor are green and hold their colour when cooked. Scarlet Cambridge has a deep burgundy-coloured bean. The Sutton is a much-branching bush with white-seeded pods that mature early. Dwarf broad beans are useful for windy areas: Cole's Early Dwarf is one of the many good English types and bears all its pods touching the ground.

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