Broccoli: My Summer Love Affair
My broccoli plants were some of the fastest growing ones I planted this summer. They grew about three feet wide and their leaves became enormous! Right in the middle of this leafy crown, tiny broccoli heads started appearing, and they seemed to double in size with each passing day. Within a week, it looked just like a crown you would purchase at your local store. You know, the broccoli that is extra expensive because it’s just the crowns, not the stalks. I know what you’re thinking – duh! But the mere sight of the extra fancy veggie right there in my dirt, defenseless, for the taking, is enough to make me quiver.
With much pain (and a screaming mother saying it was going bad) I cut this magnificent crown and cooked it up for the family that night. Trying to find the perfect recipe to do it justice would take up a whole other blog, so let’s just say we enjoyed it immensely.
By the time we were ready to eat broccoli again, my other garden crown had sprouted a few dainty yellow flowers and I could not bring myself to consume it.
Broccoli's dainty flower - close-up!
Also, I noticed that the plant we had eaten was starting to grow more little broccoli crowns, about 6 of them, around the large severed stalk.
Severed stalk surrounded by baby crowns.
Suddenly my new crown was covered in yellow flowers. It was one of the most beautiful sights I have experienced as a green thumber; and I have been gardening for a long time. I relished taking visitors to my garden and showing them this new flower, which no one recognized. “This is what happens to broccoli if you let it live,” I would say to their amazement. “I bet you’d never thought you’d see that!”
Once I even cut the full head of golden goodness and displayed it prominently on the dining room table. Everyone marveled at this flower species and gasped incredulously when I simply said: “Broccoli!” Well, I made that up. We don’t get that many visitors any more since I stopped taking my medication.
Ceci n'est pas du broccoli fleurs et tournesol!
The excitement kept increasing throughout the summer. I tended my broccoli daily, and marveled at the new details that awaited our scheduled summer rendevouzs (how do you make this noun plural, she asks?) It got me to thinking – is this even ethical? Should I tell my husband?
You’d think things could not get any better, but the fun just keeps on coming. One of my plants kept on growing and is now of gargantuan proportions, leaning over the granite boulders as if to devour them. Each tiny green bud of the former broccoli crown, in its astounding metamorphosis, became a delicate flower, which launched a long stem morphing into this medusa-like giant with little green beans all over its head!
Medusa devours granite boulders.
What next? I can’t wait to see what it has planned for me but I am sure I will not be disappointed!