Garden Living: Processing Broccoli

Garden Living

    🥦 Processing Broccoli  🥦 

Broccoli is ready to be cut when the florets have that classic soft look.  It’s too early when it is still firm on top and too late when the flowers actually start to open into their little yellow flowers.  After you have cut the main head of broccoli, leave the trunk as you can continue to get shoots of broccoli all summer long; how much depends on the type of broccoli you have grown.

  

     

       

    
Too Early!

          Just Right!          Too Late!

                                                        

 Fresh broccoli is great right from the garden, but it does need to make one stop in a salt rinse first; we use our sink.  Any bugs or worms that are hiding in that luscious canopy will come to the surface to avoid the salty water, pluck them out and it’s ready for the pot or the fridge for another day.

Freezing broccoli for a later time: from experience, keep the stems short as the long pieces get quite firm and stringy. You could also peel the stems and freeze those in pieces. Freezing should occur the day you cut your broccoli, perhaps the next day with good results, but any later and you risk losing that fresh taste. 

Prepare your space:

• Soak your broccoli in the salt water as described above. Boil a pot of water
• Prepare an ice bath (a big bowl of icy water). You will need to have extra ice ready if you’ll be repeating this process multiple times.

Have freezer bags ready and labeled with the date.

Blanching: 

• Drop your broccoli in the boiling water and set your timer for two minutes.

• Be ready with your handled strainer.  This process from blanching to ice bath should be quick.

• Move all the broccoli to the ice bath and reset your timer for two minutes.

• Remove the broccoli from the ice bath and onto a clean dry cloth or skip this step and put them into the labeled freezer bag.

 

• Move to freezer bag and squeeze out as much water and air as possible and seal.

• Put your broccoli bags in the freezer; a deep freezer is best.

It’s great reaching into your freezer or canning shelf months from now, still eating a variety of veggies that you have preserved!  And it all started from these little plants in a well fertilized earth.

For more information on how to grow broccoli and other veggies in the garden... check out my post 

Garden Living: How to Battle the Elements.