Wednesday 27 July 2016

... broccoli harvest

Hello everybody,

Despite the fact that we are still going through a horrendous drought, we have actually managed to get a very decent broccoli crop.

I prefer to grow open-pollinated heirlooms for most of my vegetables but there is one notable exception. 

I grow an F1 hybrid broccoli named "Goliath". They produce very large plants that you absolutely must not crowd when you plant them and also very large heads, often about 10" in diameter as you can see from these photos.



The flavour is very good... after all, that is one of the reasons why we grow our own, is it not?

I harvested the main head from all the plants and left them to grow on as Goliath will usually produce side shoots as well, which in fact they did. These have also been cut now. They are not large but certainly well worth the few minutes of effort to go out and cut them as you can see here.


Of course we saved a few heads which we have been eating fresh but the balance of the broccoli was blanched and frozen in the same method that I use for everything else. The one difference is that I steam the broccoli rather than boil it as I think that the spears stay in better shape since the heads are rather delicate. After they are blanched and cooled they go on a wax paper lined cookie sheet and into the freezer. Then I bag them up in zippy bags for future use.


That is it from me for now. Thanks for visiting with me. Have a great day. Cheers.

 ~ Melanie ~

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