fresh fava beans

 

dear sophie,

starting from a few weeks ago, fresh fava beans started making its appearance at the farmers market.  i had never had reason to notice these beans before until your grandma started eating fava beans.  then i started hearing about how fresh fava beans are quite tasty to eat and that its season is very short.  so, i finally decided to take home a bag of shelled fresh fava beans. 

first you should know that a bag of shelled fava beans that still needs to be peeled even further.  the fava beans have this thick dull green layer. once you peel that layer, then you will get to the delicate, pea-tasting like bean.  the shelled fava beans themselves come in pods, just like the ordinary peas you will normally find in frozen bags.  they often sell for roughly $2-3 a pound depending on whether you buy them organic or not.  a  bag of organic shelled fava beans go for $3.50 a bag, $7.00 for a pound.  i bought it anyway, because sometimes i just don't feel like dealing with raw meat for meals and prefer to eat beans for protein. 

i also bought organic heirloom tomatoes at the market because they were $3.00 a pound.  when we were living in the bay area, there would be tons of competing vendors who sold heirloom tomatoes. this time around, there was only one vendor selling it (capay organic, who i also used to buy from in the bay area!) and given that we're heading back to hawaii soon where heirloom tomatoes are $6.00 a pound, i decided to splurge and buy a few.   finally i bought corn, because corn is relatively cheap and they don't need to be eaten organic apparently. 

and so i got home from the sunday farmers market, your dad looking hungry, and you looking cranky from waking up in the morning - i decided i had to throw something together quickly.   using leftover pasta, i threw the whole meal together with balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper.  even though it looked like a totally healthy dish, as one friend commented, it was actually quite tasty.  your dad loved it.   and i'm learning that it's not so hard after all, to throw together a cold pasta dish.   your mom just added another feather to her cap!