Truchas Habas

Truchas Habas is the fava of Truchas, the Spanish village at 8,000 feet on the High Road between Santa Fe and Taos whose name means trout, and the crop was traditionally watered from the Rio de Truchas through the village acequia system. Native Seeds/SEARCH describes it as a typical northern New Mexico fava — the everyday haba of that acequia-farmed high country rather than an introduced commercial type. Plants run 2 to 3 feet and carry green-to-tan seed, and the accession is rated hardy to 20 degrees F. Like its neighbours from Ojito and San Ildefonso it was bred by altitude yet handles low-desert winters, so NS/S can multiply it in Tucson. It is genuinely dual purpose: pick pods young for fresh shelling, or take the crop through to dry seed for soups and smashed bean spreads.