In my trip to Star Provisions this weekend -- where I picked up a rack of venison (4 bones), a luscious duck breast, a wee bottle of Pop champagne, and some Anson Mill grits -- I was told that that is someone from a local farm who sells produce out front.
Among the familiar items -- fingerling potatoes, Shanghainese bok choy, apples, collards, etc. -- I saw something I had never seen that was labelled "broccoli florets." The nice guy who was manning the produce sales explained to me that after the stalks of broccoli have been cut off, the plant continues to grow. These thin broccolis (looking very much like broccoli rabe really) are very leafy. I sauteed them with a little oil and whole garlic cloves just for flavor. I like broccoli, but these things (hm, maybe these are broccolini) are lightly broccoli flavored and very tasty.
That's it for today. I have my tomato sauce with homemade meatballs (what else?) and sausage (not homemade YET!) and gumbo happily simmering on the stove.
2 comments:
The wikipedia entry about broccoli is pretty interesting: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broccoli. Make sure to check out the picture of Romanesco broccoli. It's florets grow in a fractal pattern! There is also a close up of what are called the broccoli florets on that page and it's just the tiny green nodes at the end of a stalk (which is what I've always referred to as the florets myself). Anyway, cool stuff and one of my favorite veggies.
Now I'm just comment spamming... I found this other page: http://www.uga.edu/vegetable/broccoli.html, that says, "After the main stem has been harvested, the axillary buds that are lower on the main stem are induced to develop into smaller heads, which can also be harvested in home gardens. They are not harvested in commercial production." Doesn't give a name for the second harvesting, though.
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