It doesn't look like broccoli.

  "It doesn't look like broccoli." he said.  Yep, my son-in-law had a point. We were walking in the garden the other day to gather a bit of broccoli for a vegan pizza.  Darling Daughter had started snipping the buds from the broccoli when her husband made the statement.  At first, I found this a tad humorous.  How can broccoli not look like broccoli?  But then, I started thinking about it.  Two things make this plant a good deal different than the stuff that you find in the grocery store.  First, my broccoli has not been doused with tons of chemical fertilizers that make it into the tightly wadded heads that we are all accustomed to seeing.  This being the tenth picking had left the heads a bit sparse.  It is not commonly known that broccoli will keep producing even after the first large head is snipped.  Smaller growths come off the side of the original stalk. They are tasty but just smaller with each picking.  Well, I could see why he was a bit dubious.

  Then, as I stood looking, it hit me.  Duh!  Even with the smaller heads, there was something vastly different about my broccoli!  Just about half of the buds had already opened to show the pretty yellow blossoms! This broccoli was blooming!  (Another fact that most folks do not realize, broccoli, as we eat it, is actually a cluster of buds.)  I had intentionally left the broccoli buds bloom so I could gather the seeds.  I had to agree with Robbie...this definitely does not look like broccoli!

  With the observation that my veggie garden had changed, I decided that the broccoli plants were now to be called flowering plants.  For the duration of the summertime, the plants will sit among the marigolds and petunias awaiting the winter when once again they can become vegetables.  Then, with a bit of manure, the plants can shoot forth their budding heads and closely resemble what we know as BROCCOLI!