Never Ending Broccoli (Okay, a slight exaggeration)

I just finished eating a big bowl of steamed broccoli with Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning.  I grated some parmesan cheese on top to make it extra delicious.  As I enjoyed it, I began thinking about how we've eaten broccoli for months!  All from the same plants.  Broccoli gives you a lot of bang for the buck.

Cauliflower makes one big head.  You harvest that, and you're done.  I just clip the remainder off at the stem and toss the leaves over for the cows, goats, and chickens to eat.  Broccoli is different.  It makes one primary head.  We harvest that and eat it.  But broccoli is a determined plant.  It desires to produce flowers in order to produce seeds to continue its legacy.  Of course I'm humanizing the broccoli.  I know broccoli can't think.  But it is designed to continue the species.

Here is a row of broccoli after the main heads have been picked.

If you look closely, the broccoli will send out shoots that produce numerous broccoli florets.

You must be diligent because the florets quickly flower, but if you go out almost every day and pick the florets, you can pick a big colander full every other day.

We eat the florets raw in salads or snacking, and we also steam them or add them into soups or fried rice.  These broccoli were planted from seed in the fall and we're still picking from them after all this time.

I'm not exaggerating when I say, we've harvested more pounds of florets than whole heads.  It is truly a good yielding vegetable in the garden.  But, if you miss one day of picking - you've got yellow flowers EVERYWHERE!  After today's picking, I clipped one row up and tossed it over for the cows.  Time to begin making room for the spring garden.