This posting is not about the hotness of food for once, nor a restaurant, but about the much maligned sprout and the home grown vegetable. Previously on this blog, I have displayed the wonders of my home grown Cauliflowers. This year as a challenge and something to generate a sense of wonder, I have grown my own sprouts. I will admit that I did not germinate them, and bought a strip of Sprout sprouts from B and Q. I also planted Romanesco brocolli which were grown from seeds.
Not may people know that sprouts come on trees, and in fact, when we said we were going to give one of our friends a sprout tree, they wanted to know how to look after it.
This is what the trees looked like in-situ in late December.
As the year wears on the lower leaves drop off, and leave what is sometimes called 'Brussel tops' with the sprouts underneath. This is what the complete stalk looks like after cutting the stem. The sprouts are a little smaller than those that are shop bought, but it was a miserable growing season on my patch. There were some signs of nibbling from pests (looked like very small slugs, which washed away) and I had seen birds pecking at the tops.
I can assure you that these home grown sprouts are in a league of their own. They have a chestnut-like flavour and keep and cook well. There was more than enough from two stalks for our Xmas lunch and I have enough left on the the rest of the season.
The brocolli has not been such a resounding success with the edible bits looking a bit puny, but I have nothing to compare it with.
They have a wonderful geometrical pattern to the tops which the mathematicians will be able to explain to me.My celeriacs were definitely smaller than the ones in the shop.
A poor crop, but very tasty.
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