I am looking to trade for some of your Vicia faba fava/broad beans. I have vegetable seeds to trade - please see my list. Thanks, -Tom Here is a link that might be useful: My Trade List

Yes, the favas (geez, I had "limas" typed out just then - even still, I'm getting the names confused!) taste quite a lot like edamame. I think that's why I enjoyed them so much. The texture and flavor were similar, but a bit more assertive in the favas than you'd find in a soybean. I was feeling too blah to cook the limas after making a batch of kale chips to snack on (have you all tried them? Holy goodness, they are SO good!), so I'll have to futz with them tomorrow. It sounds like they need a bit of cooking time, as some of the recipes I saw said to boil them for 15 minutes or until tender, and they were referring to fresh limas. That sounds like an awfully long time to boil anything green, so we shall see. I like mealy beans a lot, so that might not be a bad thing. Vall3fam, I hadn't even thought of checking out TJ's or Whole Paycheck for frozen favas, and I was just there today! I'll have to look the next time I go. I'd love to buy them fresh, but even at $1/lb, I'd end up composting 3/4 of it because the shell to bean ratio is so small, and decreases even more when you peel the skins off of the beans.

zeedman - that's exactly the variety I'm looking for! I tried 'ful medames' in an Egyptian restaurant last summer and really liked the meaty flavor of the fava beans. I even asked the cook where he gets his fava from, and he said he orders them directly from Egypt. The fava beans from pinetree sounded like the real thing. The Prairie Garden varieties look very promising. Wow - talk about selection! But I'm really not sure if any of them come close to the variety I'm looking for. I would love to make 'ful medames' at home this summer. I also tried falafel made from ground fava beans and it was delicious! I'll never go back to the fried ground chickpea balls you get in most middle eastern restaurants.

Someone in another thread had mentioned people taking certain medications should not consume favas. Also, I know from another internet site I occasionally go to that some people have a genetically acquired inability to deal with favas, resulting in a rare but at times life-threatening anemia. Even the pollen can harm such people...but favas are also claimed to be helpful to people with Parkinson's disease! Here is a link that might be useful: Most informative link I could find