The night I dreamed about the broccoli I couldn’t harvest fast enough, and woke up making lesson plans about broccoli sprouts, was a turning point in my gardening year. I had gone from happily planting and tending and coaxing and congratulating winter growth – to having tight-chested anxiety with what to DO with it all. Beware the broccoli and other choices on “Anna’s Easy Plant List”, for you may be overly rewarded.
I like broccoli, don’t get me wrong. I also like having in-person students to pick and eat it. I’m a snacking gardener and can usually manage a crop by snapping sprigs of broccoli off for myself and letting lots of other hands try the little heads of green buds too. Fresh is best.
This year of online instruction at school and low enrollment in community classes meant I had too much of a good thing. I needed a new plan. Not to plant more – eek! – but to:
- Eat more broccoli with my family: broccoli cheese soup, steamed broccoli with parmesan cheeses, roasted broccoli and a mix of grocery store veggies. Kid 2 likes it soft. My husband drew the line at adding broccoli to enchiladas.
- Find more people to eat broccoli: I set up a grab-and-go stand at Miles ELC, passed bags of broccoli out in classrooms of kids at computers, and even managed to get one group of kids into the school garden in person. It was amazing.
- Donate more broccoli: It took only two phone calls to significantly reduce my broccoli anxiety. Interfaith Community Services (ICS) accepts donations of produce from regular people! A week later, schedules aligned. I merrily picked broccoli, lettuce, snap peas, and beets from the Marana Community Garden, paused to take some pictures, then speed-walked my bagged harvest to my car. In the ICS parking lot, navigation was easy. An energetic volunteer accepted my bags and my assurances that blooming broccoli flowers are good to eat.
I feel so much better. I feel a little silly for not having plans in place earlier in the season – but “plans” is such a silly word even in 2021.
What are some garden plants that have bowled you over? Is your priority more growing cooking? Relaxation or production? How have your scales tipped in recent growing seasons? Ask me about easy warm season plants…. but then beware the beans and cucumbers.