grow, marvel, eat, laugh, persevere

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Densely Plant Your Broccoli Raab

This is only my second year growing Broccoli Raab.  My first time, year before last, I only had a couple of plants.  Just enough for a meal for the two of us.  This year I dug two or three little troughs, (I can't recall which) sprinkled seeds in and covered them up.  My intention was to thin the plants when they sprouted, but I never got around to it.  As it turns out, that was a good thing.

Broccoli Raab acts more like lettuce than regular Broccoli.  So, plant it densely, just like you would salad greens. Harvest and cook the heads and the leaves.

The picture above was taken yesterday. You can see that it has already produced small heads.  It's perfect for picking.  By today it is already starting to flower.  Broccoli Raab flowers are edible, too, but when it starts to flower, it's on its way out.

6 comments:

  1. Sounds good. I've never eaten or grown this. I should put that on my list of stuff to try next year as it seems it's too warm to start it now.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yum -- I love broccoli raab! I should get out there and harvest the last of mine, too.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I've never grown broccoli raab- is it similar to growing regular broccoli? I have to grow broccoli through the fall here :(

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'd never even heard of broccoli raab, thanks for talking about it. I'm pretty sure I'd like it.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I've got raab in my veg garden this year too. It's about the only veg my husband will eat so I really should have made it the whole 4'x8' bed, but I put some patty pan squash in there too. I did just thin the seedlings to about 6" apart - do you think this is giving them too much space? I did eat the seedlings after I thinned them... YUM! Sometimes when you buy raab from the store it can be so bitter, these were so mild and tasty. I can't wait to harvest it when it gets bigger! - my blog is here http://mynjgarden.com

    ReplyDelete
  6. Wow! Look at how healthy that looks! I'll have to try this next year!

    ReplyDelete