There are few vegetables at their best at this time of the year: we are deep in the heart of the hungry gap, when you’re rushing about at top speed getting seeds in and plants out into the garden, yet there’s very little to actually pick.
Fortunately, every one of the handful of crops which are at their seasonal peak right now are absolutely superb - luxury foods which you can pay a small mortgage for in the shops, yet which are fairly straightforward to grow yourself at home.
Purple sprouting broccoli is something I look forward to for the whole of winter. It’s a slow-burn plant: you sow it in late April or early May, and it spends most of the year gradually growing bigger, and bigger: mature plants reach around a metre (3ft) tall. Then, towards the end of February, it bursts into life, erupting in little explosions of densely-packed flower buds in deepest purple. Harvest them by the fistful, with a little ruff of leaves, and they just keep coming for week after week: you don’t need many plants to keep you and your family generously supplied.
Here’s my favourite quick and easy supper recipe for whenever I don’t have long to cook and there’s a newly-picked bunch of PSB to hand. Enjoy!
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