Super FOOD Item, Broccoli

bonnieplants.com 

     Broccoli is a Super prep food item.  From the cabbage family, broccoli is one hundred percent usable, edible and nutritious.  

      Broccoli is a cool weather loving plant and can be brought to the garden twice a year in spring and fall.  Optimum temperature for planting and growing broccoli is between 65 and 80 degrees fahrenheit.  Here, in the far-South, we can grow broccoli from November thru February.  Some covering may be needed if you plant late and temperatures drop, even then, it may not be pretty but, a frost bitten plant can stock for the pot.   

     You can harvest the leaves and use in your salads or cook them as you would any greens, like spinach or kale.  The leaves are actually richer in beta-carotenes than the florets.  While you are cooking dinner and you find yourself short of a green veg, get out to the garden and pick some leaves.  Cut out the stems which take longer to cook and wilt the leaves in a hot pan with butter.  Done, and done!  Looks good, tastes like restaurant haute cuisine and it's good for you.  
     
     Once the heads of the vegetable have been harvested, the plant can be let to go to seed as the spring warms.  Add a little organic fertilizer (manure) to encourage the lover heads to come up and bloom.  Here is where you get your seeds for the next crop.  Once you have gathered the seed heads, the stalks make an addition to the stock pot, or fodder for animals. 

     Not everyone likes the flavor of this vegetable, but when you are hungry, it is food for life.  Sure, it's a whole lot easier to persuade a child to eat broccoli if it is saturated with some kind of cheese sauce, but that is the fault of the parent.  Feed a child broccoli, pureed as an infant and continue adding it to the menu weekly, and you can train their little pallette (and yours) to accept the cabbage like taste. 

     Considering the nutritional values posted below, it's well worth the space in the garden and the acquired taste to have this plant in the garden.  If you don't have an orange grove in your backyard, get your vitamin C from broccoli! The cooler months are the times you are most likely to find yourself susceptible to colds and flu.  You can beef up your immune system with fresh broccoli in the diet.  

BroccoliVegetableBroccoli is an edible green plant in the cabbage family, whose large flower head is used as a vegetable. The word broccoli, from the Italian plural of broccolo, refers to "the flowering top of a cabbage". WikipediaNutrition Facts

Broccoli

Amount Per 1 spear (about 5" long) (31 g)0.5 cup, chopped or diced (44 g)1 cup chopped (91 g)100 grams1 NLEA serving (148 g)1 stalk (151 g)1 bunch (608 g)1 NLEA serving (148 g)

Calories 50

% Daily Value*

Total Fat 0.6 g	0%
Saturated fat 0.1 g	0%
Polyunsaturated fat 0.1 g
Monounsaturated fat 0 g
Cholesterol 0 mg	0%
Sodium 49 mg	2%
Potassium 468 mg	13%
Total Carbohydrate 10 g	3%
Dietary fiber 3.8 g	15%
Sugar 2.5 g
Protein 4.2 g	8%

Vitamin A	18%	Vitamin C	220%
Calcium	7%	Iron	6%
Vitamin D	0%	Vitamin B-6	15%
Vitamin B-12	0%	Magnesium	7%

*Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.

Other Uses for EGGS and eggshells

     


If your coop runneth over.......


Eggs can be used to for.....


Health and Beauty:

Yolks are rich in vitamin A for moisturizing skin, whisk, apply, rinse.
Use just the whites whisked to a froth for a soothing facial. 
Whisk an egg.  Apply to hair, work it through like conditioner and rinse.
Add a raw egg to dogs' food to restore lustre to their coat.
Pulverize an eggshell to powdr, add an egg white, apply to face, dry and rinse off to tighten skin.

Swallow a raw egg to reduce hangover symptoms.


For plants:

Pour the water you boiled the eggs in, to add calcium to your soil.  (let it cool, first!) 
Crushed shells scattered on top of your garden soil, ward off slugs, cutworms and snails.
Crushed shells also keep cats from getting comfortable using your garden as a litter box.

First aid:


Apply a whole raw egg to a burn, for one minute.
The membrane makes a makeshift bandage.  This is the inner membrane that sticks to the shell when the egg comes out. 
Applied under the eyes until it dries, it reduces puffiness and tightens the skin.

Arts and crafts:

Take one egg white, one teaspoon water and the food coloring you like, whisk it together to make edible paint cake or cookie icing.
Egg whites make a substitute for white glue in kid crafts to glue paper projects.  

christmasloveandjoy.blogspot.com

Blow out the egg by pricking a hole in the top and bottom.  Blow in top hole till egg comes out bottom.  (scramble eggs or dehydrate them for long term storage) Decorate your empty eggshell and finish with two coats of spray acrylic sealer.  Add ribbon to hide holes and decorate your tree for Christmas or Easter!
Coat an eggshell in several coats of spray sealer, cut open, decorate inside and out!(using plastic eggs, is cheating!)
Make paint, Leonardo Da Vinci did!Tempera, also known as egg tempera, is a permanent, fast-drying painting medium consisting of colored pigment mixed with a water-soluble binder medium (usually a glutinous material such as egg yolk en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempera‎

Cleaning:

Use egg whites to clean leather. Scrub in, wipe off.
Throw a couple eggs in the disposal, the shells are sharp and will clean the blades.
Pulverized eggshells added to soapy water makes an abrasive cleaner.

Mark your hard boiled eggs before putting them back in the fridge! Funny faces get kids interested.

Just the shells:

Put the shells in the compost heap!
Or, start seeds in the carton with a spoon of soil in a half shell.
Put shells in the basket with the coffee grounds to remove bitterness. When coffee time is done, put it all in the compost heap, grounds and all!
Use the shells to make tiny tea lights! pour wax, add tealight wick, let cool & use!
Dehydrate eggshells in the oven at 250 degrees for thirty minutes.  Crush the shells and add to pets' food for a calcium supplement.