From the garden

Annie Reeve, Woodend Permaculture Garden

Another amazing member of the brassica family, Broccoli is the flowering stem of a fully mature plant. It is therefore a long season vegetable, needing more than 6 months in the garden and growing to .5-1m in all dimensions. Recent varieties of heading broccoli have some of its bienniality bred out of it so that they may produce more quickly than older (heritage/heirloom) and sprouting broccoli cultivars.

In our home we adore purple sprouting broccoli. It has a longer season than heading broccoli and is able to be harvested in manageable quantities without waste. This means that our broccoli is always picked and eaten crisp and sweet. Sprouting broccoli is only able to attain its full size if it is sown very early, say in early summer. Your broccoli should form a large plant by the end of autumn, growing larger slowly but surely over winter until it becomes very large and impressive, bursting into flower buds, in early spring. Early on, the flowering stems will be quite dense and thick, elongating over spring in the classic broccolini manner. Because its growing cycle is predominately autumn-winter caterpillars are not an overwhelming problem.

The caterpillars should be removed by hand over summer and early autumn when the plants are small but, when winter comes, they will be knocked back by the cold.

Sweeter than many of the cabbage family, broccoli loves chili, lemon, miso and garlic. Eaten raw or cooked, broccoli is great served as a crudités with a creamy dressing.

To the table

Lucy Campbell, Veg Action

Beatific broccoli is high in many nutrients including vitamin C, vitamin K, iron and potassium. And as everyone is always talking about getting fibre to the node well this veg has plenty of fibre to keep your node in good working order. It’s also wonderful in simple pastas, you can use it to make a pesto, and if you’ve got a big one, cut them in ‘steaks’ like what they’re doing with cauliflowers and pop them on the barbie as we head into summer. Some recipes posted on the Eat More Veg facebook page that were popular included these broccoli & miso hand pies and a barley broccoli risotto.

Now here’s a challenge for all you home veggie growers, did you know that no one has broken the ‘heaviest ever broccoli’ record for nearly 30 years? In Alaska in 1993 Mary and John Evans grew a 15.87kg broccoli tree. Birds could’ve nested in it.

Bar the two coldest months of June and July, Peter Cundall recommends planting broccoli monthly in his Year-Round Planting and Sowing guide, so get cracking and see if you can’t grow a 16kg whopper and really put the Macedon Ranges on the map.