broccoli
 

I always just snap the sprouts off. It's not so much a second harvest, the
plants just seem to take off once they start "broccolling" as I call it, &
we're eating broccoli with every meal for a few weeks. I break off some
leaves to cook with the spears as well - deeeelicious!

Yes, the spears do "bolt" into the flowers, so you 've missed the spears on
that plant, but as I say, you can still use the leaves.

Ros

Hello,

I planted some broccoli seeds (purple sprouting) last year and now
have plants a couple of feet tall. They have purple sprouts forming.
In one plant, these have opened into yellow flowers. So when we eat
broccoli, are we really eating unopened flowers? I never knew that!

I presume that now is the time to harvest, before any more open into
flowers. I did a quick google search and it says that you should snap
off the stem and that the plant will grow side shoots over the next
couple of weeks, which can be harvested later. Is this right?

Does it make any difference if I snap, rather than cut? Will the
plants really produce a second harvest? It seems to me that they will
have to do a lot of growing to do that.

Thanks, and Happy Easter.

Chichester
West Sussex, UK.

In article ,
writes
Hello,

I planted some broccoli seeds (purple sprouting) last year and now
have plants a couple of feet tall. They have purple sprouts forming.
In one plant, these have opened into yellow flowers. So when we eat
broccoli, are we really eating unopened flowers? I never knew that!

Yes :-)
Cauliflower also is unopened flowers.
So, of course, is globe artichoke.
And asparagus is unopened leaf buds.

I presume that now is the time to harvest, before any more open into
flowers.

They're not so good once they've opened, but they're still edible. But
best to keep picking while they're still in bud, and freeze anything you
can't eat.

I did a quick google search and it says that you should snap
off the stem and that the plant will grow side shoots over the next
couple of weeks, which can be harvested later. Is this right?

Yes.

Does it make any difference if I snap, rather than cut?

No.

Will the
plants really produce a second harvest? It seems to me that they will
have to do a lot of growing to do that.

It won't be as full a harvest, but they'll continue to produce further
flower shoots from the side buds, in the same way that a sunflower fill
produce smaller flowers from the side buds if you take the main flower
off before it develops into seeds.


--
Kay
"Do not insult the crocodile until you have crossed the river"

wrote or quoted:

I planted some broccoli seeds (purple sprouting) last year and now
have plants a couple of feet tall. They have purple sprouts forming.
In one plant, these have opened into yellow flowers. So when we eat
broccoli, are we really eating unopened flowers? I never knew that!

I presume that now is the time to harvest, before any more open into
flowers. [...]

IMO, the flowers are best of all. However, there's a problem: once
the flowers open, insects tend to crawl inside them (to eat the nectar) -
and so you are probably no longer getting 100% vegetarian produce :-|
--
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