the promising winter flowers of my happy fava bean plants

…or Vicia faba, are keeping my rooftop garden spring-like in the middle of a Roman winter – and since I have never grown them before, it is all new to me – like the fact that they are often used as a cover crop, excel at fixing nitrogen in the soil, grow to become 2-6 feet tall, do great in cold weather, have those pretty wing-petaled white with black-spot-centered flowers, and here in Italy are typically planted on 2 November, All Souls Day, and harvested in time to be eaten with Pecorino for a traditional May Day picnic.