Broccoli: Boon or bust?

Two seemingly unrelated things coincided this past week: rethinking how we do our veggie donations and an early broccoli harvest (our second succession, which came along with the first, is 3 weeks early).  Waste.  There is a significant amount of waste in "our" (the US) food system.  The USDA estimates that 25% of the food grown in the US never makes it to consumers and another 96 billion pounds of food annually is never used once purchased.  We came to farming, originally, from a a food systems perspective: how do we get out of the industrialized food system? how do we stop and reverse the social, environmental, cultural, and economic damage it causes? and how do we make healthy, locally-grown, organic food available to more people?  Harvesting hundreds of heads of early broccoli, I started thinking about these questions again, and much of what we do on our farm and through the CSA felt very much affirmed.  One great advantage of a CSA is that there is less waste.  We don't grow broccoli for a distributor-middle man or a chain grocer or a large "agricultural" company.  If we did, all of our broccoli that we are harvesting right now would be trash - too small to meet their specifications.  Instead, through the CSA, approximately 100 families per week (maybe 400? people) will eat broccoli for at least 4 weeks this spring.  And it is beautiful broccoli.  It is exactly what food really should be: yummy, packed-full of nutrients, fresh, vibrant, and free of insect-damage.  Sure, if it hadn't been so hot and the broccoli had come more on schedule, we would have had more broccoli overall and for a longer period of time, but we have been through enough springs here to know that we should celebrate any broccoli that we are able to harvest and that is exactly what we plan to do!  Enjoy your early-broccoli.  If you are bored with plain boiled or steamed broccoli, try these recipes.

Roasted Broccoli

4 c. broccoli florets

3-4 T. olive oil

salt to taste

Toss florets in olive oil and salt. Place on baking sheet.  Broil on low for 10-12 minutes.

Broccoli with Peanut Butter or Cashew Butter Sauce

4 c. broccoli florets

1/2 c. peanut butter or cashew butter

1/4 t. salt

1 T. curry powder (or to taste)

2 T. olive oil

enough water to make peanut butter into sauce

Mix peanut butter through olive oil.  Add enough water to make it a thick sauce.  Toss broccoli in sauce.  Place on baking sheet.  Broil on low for 12-15 minutes, until browned.  Stir half way through.

Broccoli Pesto (from Heidi Swanson’s super natural every day)

2 c. broccoli florets, cooked for 1 minute in boiling water, dunked in cold water, and 

drained

2 cloves garlic, peeled

2/3 c. pine nuts, toasted (or I like walnuts, too)

1/3 c. grated Parmesan cheese

2 T. lemon juice

1/4 c. olive oil

1/4 c. creme fraiche (or anything like it)

1/4 t. salt

Put it all in a food processor and blend.  Mix into pasta or make into a pizza sauce or put on sandwiches.

Ideas for broccoli stems: (1) peel, cut into strips, and dip in hummus; (2) peel, cut into strips, and make into refrigerator pickles; (3) blanch and freeze and use in broccoli-cheese soup when it isn’t so warm out; (4) bake like french fries