Today I cut my first broccoli heads. They are pretty big, but I guess I should have got them a few days ago, because they started blooming. There are only a few blooms though, I think they will be okay. I have suddenly got a craving for broccoli cheese soup...we might have that for dinner this week. There are several more broccoli plants out in the garden for later days.
Amazingly, I got 2 banana peppers already. I don't think there will be any more for quite a while, but it's fun to have some so early. I love the smell of them.
Besides tackling a bunch of weeding in the garden, I decided it was time to cut the scapes off of my garlic. If you don't remove the scapes, the garlic bulbs will not get as big as they could. I got lots of garlic last year, but I waited too late, and the foliage died back too much. I had trouble finding them. This year I will check and get them sooner.
I cut them all off, and I will put them in the fridge. They will keep a long time in the crisper in your fridge. If you like garlic, you will like scapes. I am going to look for more recipes for using them this year...I will be sure to share them here when I find them. As I cut them, I kept getting whiffs of yummy garlic smell.
They grow in a natural curl for some reason, but they are stiff. They are permanently bent is this position that they grow. The big ones in the basket that are straight are from the elephant garlic. Since they are not really an actual garlic, it makes sense that their scapes don't do the same thing.
Do you grow garlic in your garden? What do you use the scapes for? If you grow broccoli, what do you do with that? I'd love to hear about it.
I have never grown garlic, but think I might add it to the garden next year...it always seemed daunting, but now that I am getting my "gardening chops" I can do it! ;) We grow broccoli and we LOVE it lots of ways, but we eat it steamed a lot, just because it's easy and my family likes it that way. I freeze quite a bit for winter comfort casseroles and I love a good broccoli soup. Not really creative, I guess...but that is how we use it. Happy Gardening!
ReplyDeleteYour broccoli look awesome. I am very jealous. What did I do wrong?! My broccoli have no heads. They are headless broccoli. :(
ReplyDeleteMelissa - Not sure, they might not have had enough time to make a broccoli head yet. Did they get out late? Also, sometimes broccoli won't produce a head if it gets a lot of heat before the head forms...which sucks. Or they make tiny heads which go straight to flowers before you get to eat them. Early season broccoli can be ready as soon as 55 days...a lot of varieties can be 70 days. So, if your plants look otherwise healthy and good, maybe you just have to wait a little longer. It is almost 4th of july and I am just now getting mine. I left the plant and just cut off the head. Supposedly the plant will start making side shoots of little broccoli heads later this summer. I'm going to try it.
ReplyDeleteNicole- We had broccoli in omelettes this morning, and then I made broccoli cheese soup this evening. I will probably end up freezing some too.
Wow its great!!!!!!
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