I first learned of this plant (Romanesco) by watching the cooking show (
Beat Bobby Flay). I bought a pack of seeds and was fairly successful in germinating them, but they all got overtaken by other plants. I also grow Broccoli every year, with pretty good success.
The broccoli season is over for me now here in Florida, all my plants have flowered and I just let the birds eat the seeds before I chop and drop.
However, I do have this one "broccoli" plant growing under a N2-fixing Cassia tree (Senna bicapsularis) I bought as a host plant for the Cloudless Sulfur butterfly. This "broccoli" plant has been getting much bigger than the other broccoli plants, but it has not flowered, but it looks just like all the other broccoli plants. I was thinking that it was getting too much N2 from this very fertile area under the tree, preventing it to flower.
But then just today, I looked down into the center of the plant and now I see the very distinct Romanesco inflorescence emerging, with a bunch of smaller inflorescence buds around the circumference of the plant.
Now I'm wondering which inflorescence to allow to flower and which to taste test.
The size of the plant is about meter tall, by a meter wide.
Two talented chefs go head-to-head for the chance to Beat Bobby Flay. To get to Bobby the chefs must first face off against each other, creating a spectacular dish with a secret ingredient of Bobby's choice. Judges Alex Guarnaschelli and Jeff Mauro know Bobby's strengths and his weaknesses...
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