I’m a broccoli farmer, a real big-time producer of the stuff.
Up until a week or so ago for the last month and a half, I picked whatever broccoli was ready, usually enough for a meal for the two of us. In the garden after returning from our grandson’s birth, I harvested way more than we could eat at one sitting. I needed to pick it all because it was ready. Had I not, the florets would have grown tough and bitter and grown into yellow flowers. If I had been home those days, I might have picked the broccoli gradually, a meal at a time. I really didn’t mind the big (for my gardens) harvest. In fact, I actually loved gathering a large amount and wished for twice as much. It felt like I was out in the subsistence garden I dream of tending someday, harvesting a crop to eat, yes, but also to can or freeze for later use.
Ready to harvest at Jones
The broccoli has surpassed my wildest expectations this season, perhaps an easy thing to do since I didn’t expect much. Cabbage, a member of the same family, hasn’t done well for me at all in past years. Bok Choi did o.k., but by this time in past seasons, nasty, hungry bugs I wasn’t familiar with were feasting on both. I’ve had none of these problems this year. The plants are large, healthy and have produced so much we are starting to get a little tired of eating broccoli, an irony that accompanies gardening success. The type I planted, Piracicaba, is a unique variety that grows an initial medium-sized loose head, then produces an abundance of smaller shoots over a long period. It was bred to be heat resistant and produce a crop well into summer. So far, it has.
Broccoli forest towering over the Lorelei
Also, the first messes we ate hardly tasted like typical broccoli. This variety is sweet and tender and delicious. In a garden with many different types of plants, a gardener will almost always have some that are doing well and others that are struggling. This year, I’m putting broccoli in the Success column.
The vegetables of my labors
