Romanesco broccoli thread

I'm sure I've gone on about it before here, but nothing came up in a search, so here I go again
Anyone has any random thoughts on this great vegetable?
As far as I'm concerned, it is the best ever combination of the green power of broccoli and the dense sweetness of cauliflower.
With bonus beauty.
Apparently it's actually a cauliflower, which kind of makes sense as it has a cauli's solid curd and tender, thick stems.
These are big pluses for me-I find standard broccoli's texture a bit unpleasantly 'hairy' and would happily just eat the stems.
But I have never, ever grown a good cauliflower.
I guess I could if I really tried, but why bother when this grows like mad?
Weirdly since cauliflower isn't supposed to produce secondary shoots,
My Romanesco seems to grow kind of like 'de cicco' broccoli:
pumping out side shoots after I've cut its main head off
so I can harvest bit by bit.


Be warned: the plants grow enormous

I see it in the markets here in france and like it alot I may just try it next year .

David

Thanks for this. When I saw it in seed catalogs, I thought it was just a gimmick!

Hi Leila, how much space are you giving it? i have been scared off by the stated huge size of the individual plants. Do the side shoots have much of the fibonacci sequence thing going on?

Romanesco Broccoli is delicious! It quickly became our favorite between any of the Broccoli and Cauliflower, with Cheddar Broccoli a close second. We planted it as a fall crop this year - not sure if we will do any good with it yet in the new garden, but time will tell. I wouldn't hesitate to grow Romanesco if I have the room (we are on ten acres here).

Thanks,

Homestead Kids

J W Richardson wrote:Hi Leila, how much space are you giving it? i have been scared off by the stated huge size of the individual plants. Do the side shoots have much of the fibonacci sequence thing going on?

Don't be scared off!
The plants do get pretty big if you let them-say 3 foot+ across-, but I grow mine quite close together-about1 1/2 foot apart.
I find some veges sulk if they're squashed in, but nothing seems to slow these guys down!
It just forces them to grow up, rather than out.
I also cut off the lower leaves when they get too big and start swamping other plants.
(I just leave them where they fall, cos that's how I roll )
I'll put up some photos soon, my camera's out of action again...

Another thing I've found is if there's any other Brassica oleracea species flowering at the same time,
Romanesco will always cross pollinate and the results aint pretty.
It's totally possible to save the seed;
it just takes a bit of planning, and lopping off the flowers of other brassica that dare bloom at the same time

I've never grown these but have been fascinated with them for a while - this post put them on the list for next year!

Here's an idea of the size of an average Romanesco plant.
The head's still a couple of weeks from being ready.
I put a peg on the the head for 'context'

I processed some today.
I lacto-fermented the nice young florets (you can see the jar by the bowl of iced broccoli)

and boiled the rest in plenty of salted water till bright green, drained, ran under cold water, dumped in an ice bath, drained and froze in a roasting dish.
Tomorrow I'll container it up the 'free flow' florets

[

Leila Rich wrote:Here's an idea of the size of an average Romanesco plant.
The head's still a couple of weeks from being ready.
I put a peg on the the head for 'context'

Dammit, it's gone all funny looking; the seed must have been crossed.

Leila Rich wrote:I processed some today

It fermented properly, but not a success.
It went an icky shade of khaki-which I can cope with,
but the sulphurous cabbage stench, not so much.