Part of my process is supported by ’Europeiska jordbruksfonden för landsbygdsutveckling’. The sieve, a mill, transport tubes and a cyclone.
The original idea spring from what I see as a system error. That we in Sweden (and elsewhere) are growing good, nutritious food that are some of the better things you can grow while doing industrial agriculture, eg. legumes, but consider it to be animal feed.
Just up until 60-70 years ago Fava beans / Åkerbönor / Bondbönor (Vicia faba) was still a part of a healthy diet, a cheap and reliant source of protein. This changed and while meat and diary consumption skyrocketed almost the only beans consumed are since then imported or grown in a small scale in the southern parts of the country. That was because they originated from South America ( the genus Phaseolus) and needs a special warm and dry climate to give a reliable harvest.
Now lately local beans and peas are on the rise again because of the interest in reducing environmental impact of ‘animal production’, and in that a protein shift to vegetable instead of animal sources. It’s up for discussion if we in the industrialized/rich part of the world really need to focus so much on our protein intake (I think we might instead have av overconsumption) but we need legumes to compliment our diets and to lower the impacts of industrial scale agriculture (they fixate nitrogen from the air through symbiotic bacteria in the soil and therefore reduce the need for other fertilizers also for crops in the fields the following year).
The process of dehulling the beans is mechanical. The reasons for dehulling is many. Primarily to remove substances in the shell that interfere with the uptake of nutrition and gives the beans a slightly bitter taste. Without hull they also can be cooked in a very short time, even without being soaked first. Like lentils.
Svensk fava has the perspective on this that we should only do as little and as efficient as possible to create good food for as many as possible. Good in as many aspects as possible. Therefore I’m using organic locally produced beans that can be grown in almost all of Sweden, using small and efficient machines on a human scale serving primarily the local part of the country. The price for this organic locally grown beans are therefore lower than imported beans.
At the moment I’m the only one doing this in Sweden and therefore I’m selling nation wide. I wish to change this into many small producers all processing legumes for the local area. To promote this a small efficient machine for dehulling legumes are in the process to be made. Stay tuned.
In the process the hulls, bits and pieces that are discarded are collected. They are around 20-30 % of the original weight. This should be used in another process. They still have a lot of protein/nitrogen and can be a potent part of a compost, this or directly in the soil are the way I usually use it. A researcher at a university used it as substrate for cultivating mushrooms (tree oyster mushrooms) and had a good yield.
I’m very open for collaborations!