An Ah-hah moment: My mother

An Ah-hah moment:

My mother said, "you know, I don't remember us having to take the inner shell off the fava beans when I was a kid."

We wondered if there was some way my grandmother cooked them that made the parboiling and refreshing unnecessary. Perhaps they were a different species of fava bean? Maybe their digestive systems were just hardier then.

Well, no. My grandmother, and all of the Italians in the Italian district of Sacramento, grew them and picked them much younger than the ones that make it to the market. One does not have to peel the individual beans once out of the pod if the beans are young. I did not realize that, always having bought them in the long pods that are characteristic of the mature fava beans.

You might learn something every day, but it still doesn't make the availability of the beans any better. Ahi me!