Today I ripped out all the broccoli plants and composted them. I could have left them in to harvest side shoots but I am going to try harvesting more big heads this season with a second planting. This may or may not work depending on how hot the summer is. If it is to hot they will button and only produce tiny heads and if it is a cool summer they should produce very nice heads. So that is the gamble I am taking.
Here is the bed cleared and weeded. There was lots of weeds from my compost, I am having tones of tomatoes & potatoes coming up all over the place from seed. The squash growing under the trellis will now have much need light. The squash are Red Kuri and Delicata from Skippy's Vegetable Garden. In front are the Romanesco Broccoli surrounded by onion sets. The Romanesco was planted a few weeks later then the broccoli was.
Here are my starts and there is 14 'Early Dividend' Broccoli & 4 'Jade Cross Hybrid' Brussels Sprouts. They were growing two to a cell so one was sacrificed before planting.
Finally here they are all planted out. The brussels sprouts are the back row and all the rest are the broccoli. Lets hope for a good second harvest and many side shoots after that!
To end things off here is the broccoli that I blanched and froze from the first harvest. We consumed about a third of the harvest fresh and two thirds I froze. The blanching was done my trimming the heads, stems included into pieces. They were then boiled for a couple minutes in salted water, then transferred into ice water to cool. Once cooled I placed them on a kitchen towels to dry, then transferred to the freezer on a cookie sheet. Once they are frozen I will seal them in freeze bags.
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