So what do you do with the....broccoli?

Well, we eat it! I don't can stuff (yet) and we didn't really have enough to freeze this year. Again, this was a test crop to see how it would do for me....and the results were mixed.

I originally tried to grow my own seedlings, but after they stayed the same size for weeks I decided to buy 4 seedlings at a local greenhouse and I planted those. I put floating row cover over them while they were small and we had cool weather. I did this to keep them from buttoning. And the strange thing is two of the plants put out regular broccoli, and the other two plants buttoned. I don't know why. (see below)

After they got large enough that they resembled broccoli you would find in the grocery store, I took a good sharp knife and cut them. I've heard horror stories about worms in the broccoli, so I soaked them in salted water for a few hours (I've heard this gets rid of the worms). No worms came screaming out. I'm going to assume that means there were no worms to be found.

The good news is that I left the two plants that produced the good broccoli and they are already putting out side shoots of edible broccoli, so I will get a second harvest out. I also already bought 8 plants to put in for Fall broccoli.

The next day we decided to have them in our favorite broccoli recipe, which is in The Fat Fallacy book about French cooking. I recommend this book to any American seriously interested in learning about the way Europeans eat. Anyway, it goes like this:

Take as much broccoli as your family will eat at a meal. Steam it until it is the color of good limes. In the meantime, in a large bowl place the juice of at least 1 generous lemon, a couple teaspoons (or more) of butter and a couple tablespoons of good olive oil, salt and pepper to taste. Once the Broccoli is done, place it in the bowl and stir and stir until all the juices and oils are absorbed by the broccoli.

Enjoy!