The Nearly Good Life

Pulling up a row of Broad Beans today and putting aside some dried seeds to sow in October, reminded me that these are the only truly european beans, and so the only ones available in this country before the 16th century. They are the Fava beans, much enjoyed by Hannibal Lecter, presumably because the peeled seed resembles a foetus. They have been cultivated around the Mediterranean for 6000 years.
Curiously, they can have a nasty effect on a few people, causing headaches, nausea and in the case of some children, even death. Pythagoras, who was a vegetarian, advised his followers against eating the bean and even forbad walking through a field of flowering beans.
It wasn't until the middle of the last century that the scientific basis for his advice was made manifest; it seems that some people inherit from their mothers a defect in red blood cell enzyme, known as glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency. This causes them to react badly to the Fava bean, even to inhaling the pollen. The syndrome is known as Favism.
I love the beans myself, particularly boiled and served cold with vinaegrette. Like a bean fed horse, it leaves me feeling sleek and full of beans.