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.