I'm interested in growing a lot more of these as an overwintered 'hungry gap' fresh food crop. I am in USDA zone 9 and the large-seeded ones grow well here through the winter without any irrigation.

I had no idea there were issues with eating them raw. I have always eaten the fresh shelled beans raw, and yesterday I tried a whole small pod, to see if that would be an easy source of food if I grew a lot of them next year.

Does anyone know if the very young fresh pods can be a problem for all people (eg phytates or other anti-nutrients), or is it only those who are allergic?

We like fresh raw green beans a lot and thought the tiny pods of these could be an alternative.

I grew Fava the first time.  Planted them out as seeds 9/15, to begin I had about 13 plants pop up, with pretty high germination, then some brown fungus attacked most of them and killed them.  So have roughly 6 now, a few inches high, sailing through 26°F first freeze.

I usually plant them in February, Agua Dulce. Every year I have problem with black aphids in March or April. I control them with garlic "soup" at regular intervals.
I never dry Fava Beans, but keep them in freezer

Experiment. I read somewhere (in this thread) it was possible to plant the beans in autumn. So I did. I planted broad beans (the regional type, 'tuinbonen' in Dutch) end October.
This morning I noticed some of them growing between the leaf mulch, in the small 'Hugelkultur 2'!

Tomorrow is fava bean planting day for me. The snow melted yesterday. Therefore, it's time to get favas in the ground. Favas may bloom like crazy in hot weather, but they don't set fruits. They grow great in cool weather, and don't mind the spring frosts, so the quicker they get started, the more likely they are to flower and set seeds during cool weather.