SC - Fava beans??

[Jessica Tiffin]

Greetings, the list!

Good grief, all this bean information - thanks very much, all.

>From the mass of info, I seem to be looking for a broad bean or sugar bean,
either white or lentil brown, with a tough skin.  They're also quite large,
right?  Now the South African supermarkets sell something they call a "sugar
bean", which is either white or speckled brown, but not as large as an inch
long - this is a different species, isn't it?  (The supermarket brands  tend
to sell beans under unhelpful descriptions such as "small white beans", an
exercise in the obvious which leaves me baffled - yup, they're small, white
beans, all right, about half a centimetre long...:).  I suspect we may not
actually get favas; Ras commented that they need a cool, moist environment,
which you don't really get in South Africa - Cape Town itself has a
Mediterranean climate, but most of its agricultural land seems to be devoted
to wine farms.

We do also get the little red kidney beans, which Ras suggested are also
mentioned in period sources - which ones? Could you post some recipes?? :>

I suppose that there's always a chance I'll bump into favas imaginatively
labelled "Big Brown Beans" or something :>  The Quest Continues!

Thanks for all the info,
Melisant
**********
Jessica Tiffin
melisant at iafrica.com  *  jessica at beattie.uct.ac.za
***********
Something very much like nothing anyone had seen before
 came trotting down the stairs and crossed the room.
"What is that?" the Duke asked, palely.
"I don't know what it is," said Hark, "But it's the only one 
there ever was."  (James Thurber, The Thirteen Clocks)

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