Broccoli

Brassica oleracea var. italica

Brassicaceae

An Italian selection of cabbage grown for its unopened flower — a green you eat before it becomes a yellow bouquet.

Kitchen flower head. Same species as cabbage and kale.

Parts used: Flower head · Stem · Young leaf
Traditional notes: Kitchen green · Italian table
Grow · USDA 6b: Cool-season annual, USDA 2–11 as a seasonal crop Transplants. Spring crop and a late-summer crop for fall. In work: Mar · Apr · May · Aug · Sep · Oct
Harvest: Tight buds, before yellow petals show. Then the side shoots.

Heat is the enemy. A shade cloth in a sudden June.
Cut the head at a slant so water does not sit.

Safety

A raw-broccoli protocol as medicine

Companions

Plant with Cabbage, Calendula, Dill, Kale, Nasturtium, Onion.

Keep apart from Strawberry, Tomato.

Lore

The Latin broccolo is a sprout or shoot. Calabrian and Roman kitchens had it before it was an American steam-tray. Thomas Jefferson seeded it at Monticello; it still took the 20th century to make it ordinary. The yellow flower is not a failure. It is a brassica finishing its sentence.

The Herbarium — a teaching catalog, not a clinic. Traditional use is history, not a prescription. USDA 6b dates are a week either way, not a promise. Do not eat, drink, or harvest a plant you cannot name.