PD Recovery has posted our fava reseach on their website:

http://www.blog.parkinsonsrecovery.c...or-parkinsons/

(click on "Grow Favas")

(This research is a combined effort from Ken Allan and myself)

I hope that many people will read what PD Recovery is posting and will be encouraged to grow their own favas.

Hopefully, this year a qualified person will come forward to test for l-dopa content and help with the research that we have started.

"TO BEAN OR NOT TO BEAN.....THAT IS THE QUESTION !"

I plan to grow a large crop of several varieties this year. I hope some of you will join me in your own fava adventure...you won't be disappointed.

Aunt Bean

Robert Rodgers is supposed to do a phone interview about the Fava beans on Monday nite. Then, it will be made into a radio broadcast & webcast. He is excited about the study and experiments we've started here. I will let you know when the show is to air, so that anyone interested in growing or using the beans will have more information on the subject. Pray for someone to come and help with the research. I have purchased a variety of seeds this year to try..to see if any grow better in our east Tennessee environment . Also,to see if any seem to contain more l-dopa, or have pods with superior taste. What we have grown so far have been very good to eat. One seed company had 20 varieties of fava beans....and there are many more varieties out there. I found out that some varieties are short (just 2' tall and do not need to be staked...so that would make them much easier to grow) What a blessing to find these. The hardest work was staking and tying the plants to keep them upright for harvest....so now I can recommend a seed company in Canada with short varieties.
God is good....there is light at the end of the tunnel. Keep looking up!

I'm up here in Canada (Toronto, to be exact), and have been following your posts with a lot of interest. I tried Mucuna for an extended period a couple years ago but found the same issues as you - dosing, purity levels, etc.

Could you reply with the name of the seed company you're referring to..? Upaya Naturals is our largest supplier up here (but they don't carry sproutable favas).

Thx,
John

Check Sun Organic Farm.com ....not sure of capitals and sapace etc (still not computer savy , but do have an old computer that was given to me set up at the house now on slow dial-up!!!!...people say I am almost 21st century now!!)
Also, the last bag we got from the health food store is marked
Mountain High Organics (no address on bag) You might check for them on internet too.

Dear Aunt Bean,

Thanks so very much for this great information. I'm wondering what soil pH make favas happy. My plants did better in the spring here in a semi high desert environment altho it seems to me they would tolerate the heat better if they liked the soil better as the favas I grew last year in a neighbors garden lastedlonger thru the growing season. Those cheap wire tomato cages work pretty well to contain the favas ( for those who aren't planting hundreds of them!). I LOVE having these plants close by . There is something very therapeutic about growing not only your food but your medicine (for me they are the same).
I find tho that I am doing well when I take 1/4 cup fava pod juice (beans removed before juicing) with a single dose sinemet- REALLY increases on time and smoothes dyskinesia tendencies. Fava juice has helped me reduce sinemet intake to 2 pills per day total. I'm sure these beans contain enzymes and other constituents that help metabolize levadopa. These beans can be ordered fresh in season by the box at local grocery stores here in Oregon. I need about 100lbs of fava pods to make a years' supply of juice ( no bean in the juice JUST the pod)
ROCK ON AUNT BEAN!
md
Fava juice has been a profound medicinal substance for me . I'm wondering about combining it with something like terrestis tribulous- surely there is a companion plant that could replace the role the sinemet plays to synergize with it. I too plan to try some different varieties.

Are you leaning towards sprouting the beans and just eating the sprouts instead of making tincture?

the sunorganicfarm.com site appears to be a food site from California that carries one variety of fava ........are these what you use to sprout? Is there a website for the Canadian seed company with short stalk fava variety - that might be good for me too as my garden is a raised bed garden
thanks!
md

Congratulations to those who have taken on the challenge to grow their own medicine.
To Bean or Not to Bean, that is the question..... Moondaughter Welcome!!!
I have had some possitive growing experience in summer months on better soil with lots of mulch. I replanted an area in July in our newly purchased field below the house and the beans look pretty even though we have had 90 some degree weather...shocking!
I have one top already one a seed that didn't wash out when the river ran thru in June
(same garden area) There had been cows pastured there for 10 yrs and land was only mowed. Contending with lots of weeds, but things grew well. Harvesting nice beans , watermellons, okra from down there and my little patch of sorghum is taller than I have ever seen it anywhere and still growing. (I have been using alot of sorghum flour in gluten -free baking and it is expensive to buy...it grows very well here...so maybee I will have my own molasses and seed for flour, too. A win- winn combination.
I have been doing alot more experimenting with foods and starting to research more into amino content of the foods I normally eat. I do so well...people do not know I have PD.
I eat alot of sweet potatoes (and have grown a larger patch this year...last yrs took me thru June...would like them to make it from harvest to harvest supplying a whole yr)
Also a variety of beans, whole grains I grind myself alot, peanut butter-crave it...use Smuckers Natural that you stir. Eat strawberries and rhubarb which we also raise..'
Plus fava beans, fava tincture, fava bean sprout tincture,an occasional mucuna ball.
Get lots of sunshine and exercize..sing, play music....feel good! God has created all we need to be strong....listen to your body...it will tell you what it needs.

Have not ordered from Sun Orgagnics...but the price is the same as the bag Earth Fare Market ordered for me bulk last yr (Price 2 yrs ago for 25 lb was $27 / price last fall was $45...) Wonder what they will be the next time I have to buy ...doubled in a yr!! but I can't grow my own seeds and use the parts of the plant and small beans I need..so I have to buy seeds so far. Perhaps if I had machinery...could grow a patch just for seed.

AB, do you take any Parkinson's meds or other prescribed meds? Or is food ,fava, etc. your only medicine? If that is the case, we're you ever on Parkinson's meds and then completely stopped them in order to take the food approach?

Speaking of shows, TV Guide has michael J. Fox on its cover. NBC has signed him for a 22 episodes of a Fall 2013 show in which he plays a character with PD. The article says PD will not necessarily be the focus but it will be an integral part of the characters life. Hats off to the peacock network for betting on Michael anod not trying to hide the PD that is a part of so many people's lives.