I woke up to a chilly house and a frosty lawn. I never thought I would be so happy to get a frost. It looks like spring is coming early this year, and as much as I appreciate warm beautiful days there is something just a little off about having so many of them in February, especially since we really haven’t had all that much cold weather to begin with. By my reckoning we are about 2 weeks early this year, or the first daffodils and hounds tongue bloomed 2 weeks earlier this year than last. The almond and cherry plum bloomed nearly 3 weeks earlier than last year and until last night we haven’t had a frosty morning since the killer freeze in December. So last night’s frost was welcome and comforting in an odd way. Maybe things aren’t as out of whack as they appear.

Out in the garden the fall planted veggies are all going to flower. The broccoli, cabbage, kale and chard have been delicious all winter long and now the bees are busily harvesting nectar and pollen from their flowers. So I will leave them in the field just a little longer to make sure the bees have plenty of early season flowers to forage from. The peas we planted at the start of the month are being chowed by quail so I put some Remy over them in hopes of barricading them from the quail. I thought about making a hot pepper spray but found out that birds don’t taste heat. It works great on deer though. Just mix up a tablespoon of cayenne powder with a gallon of water and a tablespoon of dishwashing liquid and spray it on. Deer hate the taste and will leave things alone. They are patient though and will come back every so often to try again so it necessary to repeat application every week.

I’m planting fava beans this year and not just as a cover crop. I’m planting a patch to eat. Last year a farmer friend of ours brought a delicious bean dip to market. It turns out the dip was made with fava beans. She simply boiled the fresh beans (which have a nutty, buttery flavor), slipped them out of their skins and mashed them up with garlic, salt, pepper and little olive oil. We were dipping carrots and chunks of kohlrabi in it and we couldn’t get enough it was so delicious.

Fava’s are an heirloom bean from the Mediterranean and east Asian area of the world and were the only bean eaten in Europe until the introduction of beans from the new world. They are also called broad beans, pigeon beans, horse beans, faba beans, English beans and Windsor beans. Most seed catalogs have them listed as Windsor Beans.