The Broccoli is Almost Done

Every other day, we've been enjoying broccoli florets picked from the broccoli that is still out in the garden, soldiering on.  We add it to fried rice and soups.  Last night we roasted it in the oven with minced garlic.  After the main head is picked, the broccoli just keeps on producing.  I would estimate that if you weighed the main heads we picked and then weighed the sum total of all the florets we've picked, the florets would weigh more - maybe double.  

The Good Lord created plants to grow, flower and produce seed, and our broccoli is doing just that.  The broccoli I'll show you photos of today is called Waltham Broccoli.  It is an heirloom, non-hybrid created in 1954.  Here you can see one of the florets I was speaking of.  We normally try to harvest these before they go to flower.

If you wait one more day, that tight floret will spread out like the one in the photo below and will get ready to flower.  We had weather in the 70's today.  That will really get the broccoli growing quickly and have all these florets opened.

Here is what the broccoli looks like in one more day.  Most of the flowers in the floret have turned to pretty yellow flowers.  These flowers heavily attract the honeybees that live in our column.  They'll be all over these flowers in no time at all.

Then a metamorphosis occurs.  Those flowers produce pods that look kind of like green beans.

Those pods, when mature, can be dried and the seed inside will be saved for planting next years' crop of broccoli.  Once the broccoli pods have turned brown, I'll harvest the broccoli seed.  When I harvest the seed, I'll store it in a dry, dark place.  Then I'll have broccoli seeds for sowing this fall.