Oh my goodness, I am obsessed with broccoli at the moment. Obsessed!! I can't stop thinking about it, photographing it and reading up about it.
I love how healthy and lush the broccoli bed looks in the kitchen garden at the moment with it's forest of big, dark green leaves.
I love how the water beads on the leaves of the broccoli plants and sits there for most of the day. I'm sure this is some extra clever way of retaining fluid. Farmer Bren worries that the water is not getting under all those leaves and into the soil, but I think with all that luscious foliage they must be doing OK.
I love how those gorgeous broccoli flowers start off so small nestled right inside the plant and then rise up and out of them as they blossom and grow. I think they look like ballerinas on their tippie toes dancing above all the other vegetables.
I love that the broccoli plant is not terribly frost sensitive. That it can tolerate such extreme cold and look so gorgeous coated in a film of white ice. We have had a little bit of frost damage, but after several days of hard frosts in a row we really cannot complain.
And of course I love eating those flowers. They are so full of Vitamin C and dietary fiber and so delicious too. I feel like such a great Mum when my kids eat it.
I remember when Miss Pepper was put on an eczema friendly diet a few years ago that excluded broccoli. Oh how she cried. And oh how hard it was to imagine that something like broccoli could cause her pain. I'm super glad she outgrew that one.
Our family favourite ways to eat broccoli are steamed, stir fried, in salads, in lasagnas and in omelettes. I like the idea of making tempura broccoli and adding them to rice paper rolls and soups, but haven't yet. I also hear that the stems are at their tastiest when peeled but keep forgetting to do so. Also I know people eat the florets raw and even the leaves, but I'm not crazy about that.
I keep dreaming of other broccoli concoctions every time I walk past their garden bed.
Are you loving the old broc at the moment too?
What's your favourite way to enjoy the flowery green?
How about a bridal broccoli bouquet?
What does your kitchen garden grow at the mo?
Are you having a lovely week so far?
I hope so.
See ya later, hot potata.
I'm going to have a cup of tea, broccoli!
xx
