First take a look at the pretty but small flower that is black and white on the fava plant. Since I only have 6 fava plants and since the weather has heated up, I am getting only a few fava pods here and there. Don’t forget the fava plant likes the cooler weather! While I don’t have enough fava beans for a meal all at once, I am blanching them for future use.
When the pod has between 4 and 5 beans and is plump, it is time to harvest. I prefer to hold the stem of the plant and twist off the pod or cut it off.
I put the harvested pods in a plastic container in the veggie drawer in the refrigerator until I have enough pods. The pods should stay in the refrigerator for only about 5 days. You should rinse the pods, remove the fava beans from the pods and then rinse the beans.  Now it is time to blanch and freeze the beans. Blanching fava beans means that you put the beans in boiling water for 2 minutes and then put the beans in ice water for 2 minutes.
After you drain and cool the beans, you need to take off the skin around the bean. you can do this by pushing the point at the end of the bean (see the picture directly above). Once you remove the skin, you will find a darker green colored bean underneath. You can eat it at this point or freeze it.
You can freeze the beans individually by placing them on a cookie sheet  and putting them in the freezer for an hour. Then you can store them together in a freezer container.
For more information, please refer to my blog titled “Fabulous Fava Beans”.
