What follows are Aunt Beans answers to questions about fava beans. Questions are at the top followed by answers from Aunt Bean.
Robert Rodgers PhD
Road to Recovery from Parkinsons Disease
Road to Recovery from Parkinsons Disease
Questions:
 Ordered five pounds of fava beans online. Now I have separated the beans from the pods and dehydrated the pods. Our questions:
1) Beans: Most are a light green color, others are close to white. Should we try to sprout these beans following your 4-day method, or just cook them via steaming? Does the color of the bean make a difference with respect its ability to sprout?
2) Pods: My plan is to put them in a food processor, chop up, then cover with brandy for a month. My wife wants to put some pods in a Vitamix and mix in some brandy and coconut water and then sip this. She also thought about Vitamixing pods and beans and brandy together. Do you think that will work?
Many thanks,
Carlene and Stan
Answers from Aunt Bean
“Since you have already dried the outside pods….yes, they can be covered with brandy and shook for a month. What I did this summer was skip the brandy and just powdered them in a food processor. This destroyed the non-digestible fibers in the pods so my system could handle them. Keeping this dry powder frozen will keep it’s L-dopa for at least 6 months. Keeping a small jar in the refrigerator to use daily has worked out well for me. I just put about 1 1/2 teas. in with my morning supplement bowl of: hemp protein powder, ground flax seeds, papaya ferment that I have dried and powdered and plain yogurt. Oh, I also made my own grape seed extract this year by juicing the grapes and then drying and grinding the leftover seeds and skins. I put that in my supplement bowl also. Let the yogurt hydrate the contents for about 15 minutes…adding water if necessary as it gets dry as the powders soak up all the liquid. Don’t put this dry into your stomach …hydrate all powders well before eating. If you put the pods into brandy…it is very hard to squeeze all the brandy back out of them and we had to have a press made to do it sufficiently because much was wasted .So, I suggest powdering them instead. This powder can also be added to foods anytime during the day…be creative with it…Smoothies/ cookies, etc.  Â
 As far as the inner beans go. The green ones are the best for eating. The ones the are whiter will be harder and less tasty to eat. They might sprout for you if they are mature enough. Try soaking them 24 hrs and then start the rinsing process in a colander 3 times a day until they sprout. If they don’t sprout…cook and eat like the green ones. I would steam and peel them before eating. If they do sprout for you…yes you can give them time to get a one leaf started to grow/ chop and tincture them for a small portable bottle to carry with you. I carry a tincture with me all the time, because my dopamine level can drop suddenly…the tincture gives me a quick recharge within a few minutes and my balance and gait come back to normal again. Sometimes I drop suddenly when playing music out somewhere and have to take some while performing. Not many people ask what I was doing when I take out my dropper bottle and squirt a couple droppers into my my mouth…but if someone does, I just explain to them that I have Parkinson’s disease and that it is my homemade supplement that takes care of my symptoms so that I can function normally.”
Aunt Bean
Hi Aunt Bean
I was talking to Robert Rodgers this week and just learned about this. It’s too late in the season to grow my own but I can certainly purchase organic fava beans and try to sprout them.. wow!
Once upon a time RR interviewed someone who drank a lot of eggplant juice for the nicotine. Have you ever tried tincturing eggplant?
Many thanks