Yard to Table

I've had the great fortune of harvesting a lot of herbs already, and now several heads of broccoli have reached their flowering point. Although the tiny little yellow broccoli flowers do look nice, you should eat it before they bloom! I harvested my first head last week and made the grilled broccoli that I've posted about on here. Then I harvested a monster head, bigger than mine, and steamed that over the last few days. Yesterday I harvested another big one and gave it to JJ, along with some fresh mint. I still have a stalk or 2 from the monster head, and a couple of the other plants already look ready. Some friends proposed a raspberry / broccoli swap, since they have a ton of raspberries. Awesome.

To prevent my herbs from flowering I need to constantly harvest some of the leaves and stems. If they start flowering it will end the growth cycle. I think that may have already happened with my basil. Oops. So I figure I should keep cutting and drying some of the leaves/stems. I have oregano, mint, cilantro, and oh so much mint. What they hell can you do with mint besides make mojitos? 

mint in the middle

cilantro on the right

First harvested head of broccoli

looking great

and from the other side

about to bloom, harvested just in time

marinated, grilled, and topped with goat cheese

love it

that's a big boy

yeah buddy

great looking tray of green stuff

maybe a good facebook cover photo

aaaand one more from the backside, baby

Grilled Broccoli

Grilled broccoli!

I don't know if I've ever tried to grill broccoli before, but what I made last night turned out really well! I created a simple recipe based on a few things I had seen, so let's take a look...

Ingredients

• 1 head of broccoli
• 1/4 to 1/2 C. balsamic vinegar
• 1/4 C. olive oil
• coarse sea salt
• fresh ground pepper
• (optional) 2 oz. grated cheese

Directions

  1. Cut

Trim the outside of the broccoli stem (almost like peeling a carrot), but don't cut it off. Cut the broccoli into long, thin pieces, keeping a length of stem with each floret. You want to have a couple inches of length in addition to the floret, so you can put it on the grill.

  2. Marinate

Combine oil, 1/4 C. balsamic vinegar, salt, and pepper in a large bowl. Use tongs to toss the broccoli pieces in the marinade. Pour a little more balsamic vinegar over the broccoli pieces if desired. Let sit for 30-60 minutes, tossing every few minutes.

  3. Cook

You'll need to figure out how best to cook it on your grill. I did it this way... 

Turn one side of the grill on high and the other side on low. Cook broccoli on the low side. Place thick pieces of broccoli on the back edge of the bottom rack and thinner pieces on the upper rack. (I also cooked chicken on the same side of the grill.) 

I moved a few pieces over to the high heat side for more char.

Cook for 20-30 minutes. Just cook until the broccoli reaches your desired tenderness -- and char level, if any. If it starts to char too quickly, move it to the top rack and/or turn off the heat completely on one side. Depending on your grill, flame level, temperature, etc. move the broccoli and adjust the heat accordingly until done! Remove from grill (and sprinkle cheese over broccoli if using).

grated raw milk cheddar cheese

mmm chicken

chicken, broccoli, and tomato cous cous