Broccoli Lesson

These are our six broccoli plants, our first-ever. For the past week or so I have been thinking of harvesting them, but I have to confess I was kind of intimidated by all this broccoli. The books say to harvest before the broccoli florets turn into yellow flowers. After procrastinating, I learned the hard way that broccoli waits for no gardener. Not only did the broccoli have a fair amount of yellow, but in this week's heat the broccoli bolted. Yikes, a double-whammy.

I picked it all yesterday morning and this is what I got. A lot of broccoli, or so it would seem.

But after I cleaned it, this is all I was left with. The rest was too mature, not at all attractive (those yellow flowers) and, I feared, not very tasty. I blanched what I was left with and will freeze it to use in soups. The good news is that the plants will supposedly keep producing shoots that we can harvest for the next few weeks. With some luck we'll be able to have broccoli for dinner from those shoots. And of course I'll know better next time not to delay the broccoli harvest.