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Gary350
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2 lb Head of BROCCOLI

I harvested another head of broccoli. I decided to weigh this one, it is 32 oz on my postage scales. I have another broccoli this same size I need to harvest and many more smaller ones. I cut it up and sliced and dices the stem. I am surprised the stem is so tender. Only about 2" of the stem did not get used. It made a great Broccoli and cheese soup for lunch. I bet the garden broccoli will grow like this all winter until about April when it turns hot. Then it will probably go to seed. This is the first time I have had good broccoli like this mine always went to seed when I lived in TN before there was anything to eat. It sure is a different experience to have a winter garden and not a summer garden and to have plants I have never grown before.

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Homemade Broccoli and Cheese soup in 10 minutes. Sliced and diced 2 lbs. broccoli and the tender part of stems pour into 1 gallon of boiling water for 3 minutes. Drain off water and set aside. Put in 16 oz can chicken broth, 2 peppers, 5 garlic cloves into a blender for 1 minute on high speed. Pour liquid into a pan with 16 oz Half & Half, 16 oz processed cheese and 16 oz sharp cheddar cheese. Bring to boil, turn off the heat then add the broccoli. If you like it spicy hot use different peppers 2 jalapeno peppers are hardly noticeable. Be sure to use 50% processed cheese it keeps the sharp cheddar cheese from being stringy. Use 4 to 15 cloves of garlic to taste. Serve hot with garlic bread.
Last edited by Gary350 on Sat Feb 01, 2014 7:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.
tomc
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Shakes head, usually its Alaskans or Texans with tall tales....

Nice head of broccolli.
Juliuskitty
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Gorgeous! I am trying broccoli the first time this year, but I don't have high hopes. It's probably too hot here. :roll:
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Gary350
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Juliuskitty wrote:Gorgeous! I am trying broccoli the first time this year, but I don't have high hopes. It's probably too hot here. :roll:
You should probably plant your broccoli 1st of November like I did. If you have 70 degree weather during the day like we do in Arizona it should do good. You still have time to plant it now, it grows fast.
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applestar
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Very nice! :D
imafan26
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Very nice. I grew broccoli this year and I am still harvesting the side shoots but I never got one closer to 1/2 pound. Your soup looked delicious.
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Great stuff! Nice growing & got the picking time perfect. :D

Love how you have incorporated the food & serving part with it .... mouth watering stuff!
No tall tales here ... clearly. lol
Juliuskitty
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Gary350 wrote:
Juliuskitty wrote:Gorgeous! I am trying broccoli the first time this year, but I don't have high hopes. It's probably too hot here. :roll:
You should probably plant your broccoli 1st of November like I did. If you have 70 degree weather during the day like we do in Arizona it should do good. You still have time to plant it now, it grows fast.
They are growing right now. How long does it take yours until maturity?
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Gary350
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Juliuskitty wrote:
Gary350 wrote:
Juliuskitty wrote:Gorgeous! I am trying broccoli the first time this year, but I don't have high hopes. It's probably too hot here. :roll:
You should probably plant your broccoli 1st of November like I did. If you have 70 degree weather during the day like we do in Arizona it should do good. You still have time to plant it now, it grows fast.
They are growing right now. How long does it take yours until maturity?
I bought my plants about the first or second week of November. I harvest my first broccoli a week ago. Maturity was about 2 1/2 months.
imafan26
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I planted my broccoli and brussels sprouts in July. I got the first heads in November but they have really been producing more in the last month.
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Gary350
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My broccoli has suddenly decided to grow much faster maybe it was the 80 degree weather we had last week. I harvested 2 more heads of broccoli 2 lbs each head. Sliced and diced them, then put them in freezer bags. Now they are frozen. If the grocery store can do it I can too. I can not think of anything else to do with all the broccoli I have 6 more heads almost ready to harvest and can not eat it fast enough. All the heads coming up along the sides are getting large fast.

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billw
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Hybrid or OP? What variety?

It's hard to find good OP broccolis.
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Gary350
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billw wrote:Hybrid or OP? What variety?

It's hard to find good OP broccolis.
What is OP?

I know what Go Pee means. LOL. :)

I bought the plants at Lowe's. It was the only choice I had. Selection is very poor in Arizona. I don't like living in a 3rd world country. I find the tag in the garden it says, Bonnie, Union Hill, AL. Broccoli, premium crop, spacing 18", 6 hr full sun daily. mature in 55 days.
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OP stands for open pollinated. It means it wasn't deliberately cross pollinated by human intervention. It also means very likely to have only one parent if a bee or some other pollinator didn't accidentally cross pollinate it. Hybrid means it has 2 parents pollinated that way on purpose.
Being OP is an advantage because you can save the seeds and they will grow true, same as the parent. Saved seeds from a hybrid have different gene crosses, so the seeds will not grow true in the next generations.they are considered not stabilized.
You can grow out the generations selecting traits you like, and in several generations you can create a new OP variety that is stable and will grow true.
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Gary350
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My garden has grown too fast. I can not eat it this fast. Today I harvested a 12 lb head Chinese cabbage, 2 bags of lettuce, 6 heads of broccoli, 3 bags of Spanish, 2 bags of Swiss chard, donated it all to a foster home for children.
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jal_ut
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donated it all to a foster home for children.
Good Man!

Surplus seems to be the way when we plant a garden. Have fun!
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applestar
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Gary350 wrote:I bought the plants at Lowe's. It was the only choice I had. Selection is very poor in Arizona. I don't like living in a 3rd world country. I find the tag in the garden it says, Bonnie, Union Hill, AL. Broccoli, premium crop, spacing 18", 6 hr full sun daily. mature in 55 days.
"Premium Crop" is the name of a hybrid variety broccoli
:arrow: https://bonnieplants.com/products/vegeta ... p-broccoli
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Gary350
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applestar wrote:
Gary350 wrote:I bought the plants at Lowe's. It was the only choice I had. Selection is very poor in Arizona. I don't like living in a 3rd world country. I find the tag in the garden it says, Bonnie, Union Hill, AL. Broccoli, premium crop, spacing 18", 6 hr full sun daily. mature in 55 days.
"Premium Crop" is the name of a hybrid variety broccoli
:arrow: https://bonnieplants.com/products/vegeta ... p-broccoli
I looked at the tag again, it does say, Premium crop.

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India should be on this list too.
outdoorjim
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I'm jealous... and I don't even like brocolli
imafan26
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I know what you mean Gary. I did not expect the broccoli to last this long. So I have steamed broccoli as a side dish, made beef and broccoli, broccoli cheese casserole and given some of it away. I had romaine lettuce and some pak choy come in at the same time. the Pak choy once it is cooked will last a few days, but I could not eat the Romaine fast enough. I have a handful of string beans every few days, I am ignoring the eggplant. I have a few very ripe lemons left. I gave a bag full of calamondin away and about 7 papaya.

I never tried to make soup with the broccoli before but it looks so good, maybe I'll try that too.
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I'm jealous, but I love broccoli.
I would love to have this problem, we eat lots of raw greens in our house.

and yeah, broc. stalks are really yummy, though I usually trim off the outer skin. I also like the leaves when fresh, they can be a lot like collards.
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Gary350
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It has been unseasonable warm here 85 to 88 degrees for 2 weeks. My broccoli is starting to make seed. I cut all the broccoli heads today, sliced and dice them, put it in 1 gallon freezer bags. I have 4 gallons of broccoli in the freezer.

I ate 3 medium size heads with, Blue Cheese dressing, Honey mustard, Dijon Honey Mustard, Ranch, homemade cole slaw dressing and spaghetti sauce. The best is Cole slaw dressing, Honey mustard dressing and warm spaghetti sauce. Tomorrow I will try broccoli in chicken noodle soup for lunch. I need to make Chinese stir fly one day too.

Homemade cole slaw dressing is simple, 1 jar Bread & Butter pickles 24 oz size in the kitchen blender on high speed for about 45 seconds. Mix with 1 jar Mayo 48 oz size and 1 tsp fresh ground black pepper.

Now that I have cut all the heads off I wonder if the plants will make more broccoli if it continues to be this warm?
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jal_ut
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Way to go. Good to hear of your successes while my garden is covered in snow. Here in this high mountain desert, I plant a long row of broccoli from seed directly in the garden as early as I can get on the ground, around April, and let it grow full season. I cut the main heads, and some of the side shoots, and let it bloom till frost for forage for the bees. The bees love it.


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