If you want something that tastes a little like broccoli, but very mild and sweet, just keep your kale plants over the winter, and let them make buds the next spring. Snap the flower bud stems off before the flowers open. They are really wonderful. If your plants are big and sturdy, you can harvest a huge crop. I haven't had any problems with aphids or worms. Maybe it's too early for them. Kale will overwinter here in the Pacific Northwest. I don't know about other places. I grow Kale just for these buds now. They are so much better than the leaves. I like to steam them and mix with sauteed chopped garlic and cooked thin spaghetti, with some olive oil, salt and pepper. Sprinkle a little Romano on top.

I grew it for the first time last year, it does grow easily! It's a cool weather crop and very quick to germinate. It's called broccolini, rapini or broccoli raab. It grows great in cooler weather and is only about 40 days to maturation. Since I had never grown it before, I wasn't sure what I was looking for and almost missed my opportunity to enjoy the bounty. One plant went to seed while I was waiting for it to get bigger, so then I knew to harvest what I could. It was delicious sauteed in garlic and tossed with pasta and mushrooms. It was fantastic, and would be a great candidate for succession sowing- it's one that will most definitely return to my garden this year. Johnny's has some seed, called Spring Raab (brassica rapa). Here is a link that might be useful: Johnny's Spring Raab

Hello all! Have been traveling and busy at work so not as much time to post. I too am beginning to tire of the tomato madness, but am super grateful for this wonderful first year garden! It has been thrilling to pop out the back kitchen door with a harvest basket and felco pruners and come in with literally pounds of fresh produce day by day. Amazing! And to think I live in California and can do this year round?!? My tomato counts are not exact as I had to travel for 4 weeks during this time and had a house sitter harvesting and not weighing but close enough.....Current totals: 191 pds of tomatoes harvested from 12 plants Paul Robeson top producer at over 30 pds from 1 plant. Dr Wyches Yellow second with over 27 pds from 1 plant. Purple Cherokee third with 20 pds from 1 plant. Great flavor! Amish Paste - close to 18 pds per plant San Marzano - ~12 pds per plant. This one is the last to mature, still a decent amount of fruit not yet ripe. The rest of the plants are almost done, will be pulling them out in ~1 week. Not sure what to do with San Marzano. The flavor is superb but it is lagging in terms of volume produced. Will wait to decide until final harvest totals. In meantime I have started my fall/winter garden. My list of things I plan to try (many for the first time): fennel (love fennel, fingers crossed it pans out!!!) carrots turnips celery lettuces and spinach napa and savoy cabbages broccolini bok choy brussels sprouts swiss chard leeks sugar snap peas The new pressure cooker arrived today - can't wait to try it out... first priority are vegetable and chicken broths....hopefully i do not blow up the house, will let you know how it goes! great to see everyone's updates and garden bounties! love the graph kevin. the garden obsessions demonstrated here crack me up. clearly i have found my people! happy gardening all!

The spouting broccolis form side shoots with minimum central head. Many of the older heading broccoli varieties also produce side shoots for an extended harvest. One the more popular is Green Sprouting Calabrese. https://www.southernstates.com/catalog/p-8246-broccoli-green-sprouting-calabrese.aspx  . There are also Purple Sprouting and White Sprouting varieties. Aspabroc was the original broccolini. Since that introduction several developers have introduced broccoli Chinese kale crosses. In addition to Apollo and Piracicaba There are Artist, Atlantis, Happy Rich ... There is also a leaf broccoli Spigariello Liscia, never tried it. probably similar to kale.