Thursday 26 May 2011

Broccoli

 My broccoli is doing really well this season. Sometimes when I've grown it it's been small and spindly, or shot to seed, or not even had a head at all. I haven't been feeding anything special this time, or much at all really, so I'm going to presume this means I have the soil well fertilised with compost etc, and continue what I've been doing with home composting.

 This green broccoli sprouts lots of little heads when you cut one off, a bit like Medusa. It's easy to harvest and an added bonus is that it rarely needs more chopping when you get it inside!

Broccoli is easy to freeze - I just chop it and put it in a ziplock bag. I don't worry about blanching. When I want to cook it I just tip it straight into the pan from the freezer, or you can put it in a sieve and run hot water over it to defrost it first.

 This is italian broccoli. I had a really old packet of seeds that I tried once, back in the garden of the rental flat where the soil was stony and poor. I didn't have much success so the rest of the seeds didn't get used. But I discovered them recently and thought I'd have another go before I chucked the seeds out - looks like I've been more successful this time!

This is my old favourite - Violet Sicilian cauliflower, but called purple broccoli by me. It starts off looking like a cauliflower, but sprouts into more of a broccoli head before long. The purple colour is intensified by cold weather.

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