Fava Beans are one of the more than 400 whole foods Diane Onstead breaks down in The Whole Foods Companion. Fresh fava beans are large, flat, and oval, with a firm creamy texture and dainty, nutty taste. Young beans are quite tender, but as they mature, the skin covering the bean becomes coarser and tougher. Older beans need this coarse outer skin removed or “slipped” before they are eaten. If you are fortunate enough to be in possession of young beans, cook them whole. Simply trim the ends, rinse, and cook in boiling water for four to five minutes. The young pods are unexpectedly filling, and you will find one pound in weight will happily satisfy six to eight people as a side dish. Dried favas look like large lima beans and have a mealy, granular texture and an assertive flavor; they need long, slow cooking and their thick skins peeled before eating. Favas can be eaten on their own, in casseroles, or in salads. Served hot with melted butter, seasoned with salt and freshly ground pepper, and sprinkled with chopped parsley or basil, they are delicious. In most recipes, favas can be substituted for limas
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What Can I Do? author Lisa Harrow and her husband, whale biologist Roger Payne, were interviewed on the Wild Side News this week about their latest project, Lessons from Copernicus. Lisa and Roger talked about their ongoing work, Lisa about her new book What Can I Do: An Alphabet for Living, created from her passion to give us all the answers we need to make a difference, and Roger about the “Voyage of the Odyssey, his oceanic journey of discovery, now in its fifth and final year, and featured on PBS. They also performed a piece from Lessons from Copernicus, which you can now hear online at Wild Side News

“We are constantly in awe of our authors,” wrote Chelsea Green Editor-in-Chief John Barstow recently. And it’s true! Our authors are leading experts in everything from fermentation to wind power. So this month, we’re happy to roll out the Chelsea Green Reference Desk, a new feature on our website that allows you to access our authors for troubleshooting. If you have a question on renewable energy, food and gardening, green building, socially responsible business, or any of the topics covered in our books on sustainable living, please email reference[at] chelseagreen.com. We’ll put your questions to our authors and post a response.

Wind Power author Paul Gipe earned recognition last month when NASA sited his earlier book, Wind Energy Basics and the Gipe Power Law in a recent document on surface meteorology and solar energy. NASA issued a press release stating, “The Gipe Power Law is used to calculate a new wind speed from the wind speed at 50 meters above the surface that is computed from output of the Goddard Earth Observing System (GEOS) version 1 analysis.”

The Vermont Guardian this month wrote, “In the end, any book publisher is defined by the collections of words contained in their storehouse. Vermont’s Chelsea Green is re-defining itself as ‘the mouse that roared,’ the little Green Mountain press with the courage to issue a provocative literary challenge to the status quo. We might do well to support them in any way that we can.”

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Farmers, engineers, environmentalists, and biofuel enthusiasts have reason to celebrate this month. March 18th is National Biodiesel Day, and this year will mark a 15% increase in the biodiesel industry over 2004, as promising information and legislation about the alternative fuel continue to crop up.
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