We love broccoli raab and buy it in the supermarket when we see it, but we never do well growing it ourselves. The leaves look healthy but we don't get the bunches of florets that we like. The pictures on the seed packets show them, but all we seem to produce are long thin stalks with a few measly flowers which turn yellow immediately. Has anyone else grown this with more success?
Growing Broccoli Raab?
We are trying it for the first time. Getting the same thing you are, lousy looking stuff.
We end up with the same thing as Broccoli Raab, by leaving the Broccoli plants after we cut the main head. Lots of very tender side shoots come on. We pick & sell these all summer long. Some can get a couple inches wide before they flower. You could pick them when they are very small & actually have Broccoli Raab, I think.
Bernie
Tender side shoots from regular broccoli don't have that lovely bite that raab has, though. I'm wondering what we're doing wrong with the raab! I've tried lots of different varieties and always had the same result.
How interesting! The same thing happened to me this year. The earliest pickings were nice, but they sure did go to flower quickly. They didn't have all of the florets either. Maybe they have to be pinched back in the early stages? (Yeah, right-I'll add that to my list of chores!)
I had the same problem. This is the first time I tried to grow broccoli and cauliflower. The broccoli has gotten tall with yellow flowers and some small florets. The cauliflower has nice leaves and nothing else.
Maybe we've got too much nitrogen in our soils? Interesting that others are having the same issues. I've grown broccoli successfully in the past but was turned off by those lovely little broccoli-colored caterpillars that I'd find clinging to the stalks after I had steamed them. Never tried cauliflower, though.
I grew Calabrese broccoli this year and had loads of very small side shoots that lasted a long time before it insisted on bolting. I was harvesting every other day when the tips got to the size of a dime. It was great sauteed in olive oil with some garlic. To get the critters off, you just soak it in mild salt water for a few minutes. I saved loads of seed so if anyone wants to try it send me a dmail.
How does Calabrese broccoli compare to raab, Twiggy? Does it have a somewhat bitter taste, too?
No bitterness. I prepare regular broccoli the same way and I'd say taste was the same. I did enjoy those tender little stalks a lot. It's awful to have to confess that at my advanced age, I still haven't tasted raab or rapini, whatever that is. I do have some raab seeds to try this fall so maybe I can see what I've been missing.
Dorothy, raab is very different. It has an almost bitter taste that grows on you; my granddaughter loves to grab it out of the garden and eat it raw. We sauté it with garlic and olive oil and add it to scrambled eggs, or to Italian sausage and serve it on pasta. I also throw a few leaves into a salad.
I was reading about raab on a site that sells the seeds, and it recommended thinning to 18 - 24" between plants. We have never thinned it like that, so maybe that's the problem. It just might not have enough room to do its thing in my crowded rows.
Leslie
That spacing is good to know since I tend to crowd things. I want to grow a lot of different cole crops to go through the fall - spring cycle. As time goes by, I get more and more turned off the supermarket produce and their same old offerings that become boring.
veggies from the store - ho hum
veggies from your garden - yum yum
growing your own food - priceless
;^) Kelly
This message was edited Jun 10, 2009 8:21 AM
So true on all counts. No worries about salmonella, ecoli, pesticides or guilt over the carbon cost (as in transportation) or guilt over the water it took to grow in CA when they're struggling with terrible shortages. All that before considering the other benefits.
I tend to crowd things, too, although I like to thin them so that eventually they're at the right distance apart. But who knew that the right distance for raab was that large!
Yeah, I don't know what I'd do without my garden and all the lovely fresh produce! Even the organic stuff in the supermarket looks pretty sad in comparison.
... and the price of organics in the supermarket tends to make me feel ill!
It's high, but I don't mind paying a little more to support something that used to be almost totally unavailable in mainstream markets. I figure I'm voting with my wallet, and hopefully prices will eventually come down if there're more farms producing that kind of produce.
Totally agree! What I don't or can't grow, I try to buy from my local farmer's market.
It's nice to help support the little guys and get fresh from the farm produce all at the same time!!
I also support the local farmers market. I am pretty lucky because I have some organic farmers in the area as well as an Amish community. I was there today and there broccoli and cauliflower weren't looking very good either.