Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Broccoli twist

One of the unfortunate aspects of farming (and CSA-style farming in particular) is crop failure. I seeded in the early spring, creating tiny little plants with hopes of growing big, only to find that some of those little things simply didn't. 

After much waiting and waiting and waiting for the broccoli and cauliflower to head up, I had given up this week. It was far past the time that they should have headed, other farmers at market have had broccoli for weeks. I looked into uses for the plants without heads and found that the greens, lucious and beautiful like kale, are certainly edible and can be used in many ways. So for this week's harvest, I set out to pick leaves. 

Of course, now that I was committed to a leaf harvest, what did I find on the plants yesterday?!?! HEADS! Tiny, almost bolted, bulby green heads were staring right at me through the broccoli leaves. So, in this week's share we have two broccoli items: 

tiny, almost bolted, bulby green heads (cut with long stalks - eat those too!)
and the leaves

What to do with the leaves:
sautee them, just as you might kale, with a little garlic, onions, and olive oil

brush them with olive oil and garlic and make chips

steam them, puree them, mix with garam masala and some curry and add to pasta for an Indian-inspired pesto! (toss in some sauteed summer squash and onions - yum!)

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