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.

Beginnings and Endings in the Garden

The new year brings with it new things to do in the garden.  A tradition I have is to get my tomato, pepper, and eggplant seeds started on January 1st each year.  I like to grow a lot of different varieties.  My favorite is probably Black Krim.  In past years I would plant a six pack for each variety with two seeds per seed pot.  If all germinate, which most of them do, that means you have 12 plants.  That's really too much for the space I have allocated for tomatoes, so we ended up giving a lot of plants away.  This year I decided to plant just one seed per pot.

Varieties this year include: Big Rainbow, Pink Brandywine, Cherokee Purple, Mortgage Lifter, Black Krim, Roma, Creole, Chadwick Cherry and Tomatillo.

In past years, I would purchase a special seed starting mix.  If you look on the ingredient list, it contains items like: sphagnum peat moss, vermiculite, coconut coir, perlite, and rice hulls.  Nothing wrong with any of that, but I would rather not pay money for something we can produce on our own - and we can.

I theorized that our wood chips that have composted in the back of the garden for three years could work.  It looks like rich, dark, moist topsoil.  I fill each seed pot 3/4 of the way full.  There are some lumps and even some small chips that haven't composted down yet.  For the top 1/4 of the seed pot, I take the same wood chip compost and scrape it through hardware cloth (think wire like on the bottom of a rabbit hutch).  This screens out the bigger chunks and makes the compost that falls through the screen have a fluffy, light, fine texture - perfect for starting seeds in.

I also planted the peppers and eggplant.  I'm planting Black Beauty Eggplant and the pepper varieties I'm planting include: Sweet Banana, Anaheim, Craig's Grande Jalapeno, Hot Jalapeno, Chocolate Bell, Emerald Giant Green Bell, Lilac Bell, Horizon Bell, and Criollo Sella.  

All of those germinate a little slower than the tomatoes.  In fact, most of the tomatoes are up.

That's the Beginnings of the garden that starts on January 1.  We also have some things ending.  The broccoli has been producing, but they aren't near done.  A cauliflower produces on head and then it's done.  A broccoli says, "Not so fast, my friend."  After the big head has been picked on a broccoli, the plant produces many florets.  So many that you must pick them just about every day.

If you aren't dutiful in picking, some of the florets quickly go to flowering, which is bad for us, but good for the honeybees.  You can see a honeybee checking out the beautiful yellow flowers of a broccoli that has gone to flower.

Each day (that I remember) I bring a colander out to the 3 rows of broccoli and do some picking.  In no time at all I have pretty good mess of broccoli florets picked.  Yeah, a few flowers, too.  I'm not particular, I'll eat the flowers.  We generally pour this on a stoneware tray, drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper and sprinkle minced garlic on top and then stir up.  We roast that in the oven and devour it.  We call it broccoli candy.

I don't know how to quantify it, but I would guess we harvest MORE pounds of broccoli florets like this than we do in the bigger heads of broccoli.  It's like a 'second crop' of broccoli.

Waste Not, Want Not

The photo below evidences the fact that I didn't move fast enough.  I didn't take action in time and the broccoli flowered and became inedible.  It was wasted. Broccoli is interesting in that once the primary head is harvested, the plant sends out little florets of broccoli all over the place.  The plant's goal is to flower and go to seed, thus creating a way to reproduce itself many times over, long after the plant has died. God created humans and told them to "be fruitful and multiply."  Plants are no different.

The trouble with the yellow flowers on the broccoli is that it is too late to enjoy. Broccoli is delicious, but once it has begun to flower, it becomes bitter and not as tender and delicious.  It happens very quickly.

Broccoli flowers

Fortunately, that's the only one that 'got away.'  After harvesting the large head off of the broccoli, like clockwork, we're out walking down the rows, plucking the little florets, or off-shoots of broccoli. Below you can see where the original big head of broccoli was snipped off and you can see a couple of florets that grew to the side, providing an opportunity for a second harvest.

Smaller florets growing after the large head has been harvested

These little florets are tender and they are easy to simply snip off with a quick snap between your thumb and fore finger.  I would think that in the large fields of commercially grown broccoli, it is probably not economical to go back for a second harvest and all the smaller florets are wasted. We try to not waste any broccoli florets, knowing that the broccoli will continue to produce smaller florets that we can enjoy if we harvest them each day.  

Florets

It's not an enormous amount of broccoli compared to the quantity you get off of the main broccoli head, but it's the perfect amount for us.  Here's what we got yesterday and enjoyed for lunch today.

The second harvest

Cauliflower, although it is from the same brassica family as the broccoli, doesn't send out side shoots once the main head is harvested.  Broccoli, however, provides more for you to enjoy, if you are diligent.  If you don't waste, you won't be found wanting and I'll make sure from now on that we won't see yellow flowers on the broccoli row.