What's up everyone? Welcome back to the Epic Gardening Podcast. Today we are continuing on our

broccoli saga and talking about harvesting broccoli. Timing is very important when you are harvesting broccoli because of course you want to get massive heads of broccoli.

So you want them to grow as large as possible, but still you want to harvest them while the heads are tight

before those florets really swell

and definitely before they start to open up.

So if your broccoli head is getting close to harvest,

you really want to keep an eye on it

because in warm weather the florits can swell and start to open quickly

and then you've missed your window and then another thing to keep in mind

is most types of broccoli and we've done a podcast episode

about broccoli varieties

they will produce a second crop of side shoots and tender leaves that you can use

a few weeks after the main head is harvested so you don't necessarily have to pull your

broccoli right away you can get just a little bit extra out of your plant so I highly

recommend that you do that. When harvesting what you'll want to do is grab a really sharp knife and cut the head off at an angle

right above a little swirl of leaves. There's going to be small side shoots like I said. They will come out in about two weeks or so and they will come out from the leaf junctions.

So you don't want to cut off those leaf junctions, otherwise you won't get the side shoots.

Remember, the upper leaves of broccoli plants are also

tender and delicious. It's a cruciferous vegetable much like kale. You'll find

though that the broccoli tends to be softer, it's not as rough and the flavor is

generally sweeter than kale so long as you cut the mid-ribs out which is what most

people do with a kale or a collard, etc. anyways.

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