Well, almost the first harvest.....we
have been eating lettuce for several weeks now. But this is broccoli from the main garden we're talking about here! I've been checking the broccoli every other day or so to see how large the heads would get before it was time to harvest them. And just a few days ago I was rewarded with 4 large heads and then yesterday I cut 6 more from among the huge leaves.
We have 2 different types of lettuce this year and the furry green stuff on the right is fennel. Yum!
But let's get back to the broccoli. Some worms were just starting to eat the giant leaves of the broccoli as we were harvesting. Whew! Looks like we cut these heads just in time. They don't look so big when compared to the giant leaves but each of these heads were 6" across. Yup, I'm happy with that.
Now what should I do with all this broccoli? Freeze it! There's no way we're going to eat all of this at one time. I like broccoli but not so much that I want to eat it every night. Besides, the whole idea with our garden is to eat some now and preserve some for later.
First I rinsed the heads and removed any remaining leaves. Then I cut up the florets into pieces no larger than 1-1/2" across. After that, everyone went into a large pot filled with water and 4 teaspoons of salt. The salt kills any critters that may be lurking in the florets. The soak only lasts half an hour. Then drain and rinse the broccoli and fill a large pot 2/3 full with water and bring it to a boil.
Put the broccoli into the boiling water and blanch it for 3 minutes. I had to do mine in three batches so as not to overcrowd the pot. After 3 minutes immediately remove the broccoli and plunge it into a bowl filled with ice and water for another 3 minutes to stop the enzymes and to retain that brilliant green color. Drain the broccoli in a colander.
After draining the broccoli place it on absorbent hand towels for a few minutes to remove as much water as possible. Isn't it pretty against that red towel?
Next I put the broccoli on my baking sheets in a single layer and Joel and Jeremy took them off to the big freezer down in the pavilion so they would become more solid before I put them in their vacuum seal containers. (vacuum sealing is awesome, but without freezing the broccoli first, the process would squash the lovely florets and make them unappealing to eat this winter.) In a couple of hours the guys retrieved the baking sheets with the frozen broccoli on them and I popped handfuls of frozen broccoli into convenient sized bags in portions enough to serve two people. (Jeremy doesn't like broccoli.)
After sealing the bags are dated and tucked away in our big freezer.....just waiting for their veggie cousins to join them. There will be more to come soon enough. At least we hope so!
Veggie Queen,
Debbie
