So, it turns out I should have researched “vegetable plant size” before I willy-nilly shoved a bunch o’ veggies in the beds next to my house. But had I done that this blog about broccoli might have been rather boring. Really though, it’s still a blog about growing broccoli in Portland, so chances are it’s going to be sort of boring – but I hope you will find the pictures funny.

Let’s start down the path of how cute the broccoli plants were when Grace and I brought them home and planted them:

[singlepic id=161 w=420 h=340 float=]

Cute, right? They look innocent enough.

Now here they are two weeks later on May 28:

[singlepic id=160 w=420 h=340 float=]

And then on June 3. Hmmm. These babies are getting big.

[singlepic id=159 w=420 h=340 float=]

Here they are on June 17 – the first time I’d seen them in over a week because I was traveling for work. Uh…

[singlepic id=158 w=420 h=340 float=]

July 3 – dear heavens! These things are huge! I had no clue (obviously!) just how big they would get. And I still haven’t seen actual broccoli…

[singlepic id=162 w=420 h=340 float=]

Until now – ta da! Some broccoli!

[singlepic id=166 w=420 h=340 float=]

[singlepic id=163 w=420 h=340 float=]

[singlepic id=157 w=420 h=340 float=]

[singlepic id=156 w=420 h=340 float=]

[singlepic id=154 w=420 h=340 float=]

Once the broccoli sprouted, it came in pretty quick. On Thursday, we were able to cut bunches from five of our seven plants!

[singlepic id=154 w=420 h=340 float=]

[singlepic id=153 w=420 h=340 float=]

[singlepic id=164 w=420 h=340 float=]

[singlepic id=165 w=420 h=340 float=]

I think I waited just a tiny bit too long to cut them – the buds seems a little bigger than might be ideal. But it’s still pretty tasty. Off to find a recipe to use it in for dinner this weekend. Let me know if you have any suggestions below.