Monday 4 April 2011

Sprouting Broccoli "White Eye"

My Purple Sprouting Broccoli is in full swing now, and we have already eaten a fair bit of it, but now the white type will also be ready very soon. It is a variety called "White Eye". The plants are quite compact - nowhere near as tall as the purple ones (This might be worth bearing in mind if you want to grow broccoli in a position that is exposed to strong winds) - but it is equally productive. The first shoots are showing colour now. They look like miniature cauliflowers.



When harvesting the purple broccoli I was careful to cut each spear just above a leaf joint. This promotes the growth of secondary spears, as you can see in the next photo. The secondary spears are not as big as the primary ones, but they are still well worth having (of course they taste the same...). Because they are smaller cooking them is trickier, and needs less time. Try blanching them briefly in boiling water and then adding them to a pasta dish  - or into a stir-fry.


The same principle is applied to the main growing point of the plant - you cut this first, which encourages the plant to put more energy into the sideshoots. I normally get somewhere between 20 and 25 primary shoots from each plant, and about twice that number of secondary shoots.


Here's a pic of a recent harvest. This little lot weighed-in at 540g. It's probably about 50 spears. Some (big) primary shoots, and some (smaller) secondary shoots. The new harvesting-knife is very effective, by the way. The thin curved blade means that you can slice off the broccoli spears at exactly the right point, even when this is in a position that is hard to reach.


For us, a decent one-person helping is probably represented by 4 or 5 big spears, so unless you want to eat broccoli three times a day, you may need to investigate ways of keeping it. We use those "Stayfresh" bags [available in the UK from Lakeland], which keep produce fresh for a lot longer. I think that in one of them, PSB would keep (in the fridge) for at least two or three weeks after harvesting.

FOOTNOTE - Cavolo Nero
I decided in the end not to pick the sideshoots of my last remaining Cavolo Nero plant, but to allow it to flower instead. You can see that is has suddenly put on a burst of growth, and has shot up so that it is as tall as the PSB now.


In a couple of days' time this will be a mass of little yellow flowers, like this...


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P.S. one of my blogging friends, Maureen, from Allotment Heaven is offering a great Giveaway at present. She has a copy of "The English Roses" by David Austin, to give away in a prize draw. Visit her blog for more details.

13 comments:

  1. Beautiful photo's , as usual. Can't imagine bothering with the White Eye broccoli - my kids will just moan that they are getting cauliflower again. The purple looks great tho'. Maybe I can convince them it.s a new kind of super veg!

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  2. Your broccoli plants look quite big, so interesting. I'm glad I'm trying to grow it this year. The Cavolo Nero is going to look great in flower.

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  3. Mark I am constantly impressed with the fabulous quality of all your produce. I can only hope that one day I can think the same about my own. It must be your neat rows methinks :)

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  4. Hey Mark, I also let the "sprouts" grow from side stems and we saute them with Soy and Ginger - very nice! Believe it or not, the boys will eat them as part of their cooked weekend breakfast (with bacon and egg).

    I am completely baffled as to how you are able to grow so much veg, ornamentals, trees, hops and flowers in your garden! You are an expert space-maximizer for sure.

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  5. These look really good. I am going to have to get some sprouting broccoli seeds and try these in the fall garden.

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  6. I have never seen white broccoli before so I am wondering if the flavour is any different? The purple is so pretty I think I would grow it for looks even if we didn't love it as much as we do.

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  7. Fiona from Arbordale Farm: the flavour of the white broccoli seems to be a bit stronger than the purple one. The spears have bigger leaves too, so you can use these where you might use spinach or Spring Cabbage.

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  8. How cute look like cauliflower. Thank you for the reminder that the purple sprouting one is very big. Planning to transplant them end of this month. Nice harvest.

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  9. Wow fantastic! Mine are still tiny only just put out two leaves and so leggy. Are they always so leggy to start with?
    Thank you so much for botanical-ing my blog! Such a great place to learn and discover. Like your white sprouting! I had no idea they existed.

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  10. Impressive Brassica's, Not something I've grown, but looks well worth it.

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  11. I'm going to have to avoid blogs about broccoli as it just makes me jealous!

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  12. Sue, you can't be good at EVERYTHING. You have to fail once in a while so that the rest of us can catch up! Anyway, from what you have said, the weather was what did the damage and you can't control that.

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  13. I've seen purple sprouting broccoli often enough, but I've never seen the white variety before. It looks really delicious.

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