My First Garden Broccoli

I picked the first broccoli from my garden today. Actually it was a little overdue. I held off a little longer than I should have because the idea of picking it made me kinda sad. After all that nurturing, I’d gotten quite attached to the little guy.

Out of respect, my roommates and I had a broccoli cutting ceremony.

Then we positioned the broccoli at various angles and took turns photographing it. I was thinking how amusing it would be for someone to walk in on us doing this. I have an odd fascination with photographing plants and food.

Notice that the broccoli head has already started to loosen, exposing some bright yellow flowers. Ideally, broccoli should be harvested before this occurs…when the plant is still nice and dense. It is pretty like this though – maybe sometime I’ll let all the flowers bloom so I can have a nice broccoli bouquet.

I thought the broccoli might taste funny because we picked it too late, but it tasted perfect. I steamed the broccoli florets for about 5 minutes, added some Earth Balance, and a dash of salt.

Apparently, once the central broccoli head is cut off, the smaller broccoli shoots on the side are stimulated to grow.

Now I have that to look forward to…as well as my other baby broccoli plants that are still forming.