Roasted broccoli- delicious!

So, I wondered if the broccoli that had flowered was edible, and upon researching it found that it was and was even said to have a somewhat milder flavor than when harvested at the usual bud stage. I thought about making broccoli cheese soup, but couldn't find a recipe for the crock pot utilizing fresh broccoli and natural cheese...everything I found seemed to involve cream of something soup, Velveeta, and/or cheese whiz, and frozen broccoli. I decided to try roasting it, flowers and all, following another recipe I'd found online. I cut the broccoli into good-sized florets, tossed with olive oil, garlic salt, and fresh ground black pepper, then roasted at 425 for 20 minutes. Then I squeezed half a lemon over it and threw in about a tablespoon of fresh Parmesan cheese. It was amazing and quite different- the flowers and buds were crisp and crunchy brown. I found it every bit as addictive as chips or chex mix....hard to stop eating it.

The frost must have really damaged the lemons, so I doubt we will be freezing bags of the juice for homemade lemonade this year. This time, and another couple of times I've used a fresh lemon for something, it was brown and semi-dessicated on the inside; the flavor wasn't affected but there wasn't very much juice. As I recall, this also happened the last time we had a bad freeze....and then we didn't have any lemons or key limes the following year at all.

I pruned off the dead tops of asparagus fern growing alongside the streambed, which was a painful task given that I wasn't wearing gardening gloves (need to get new ones!) Then I packed in algae around the roots which I hope will keep Bermuda grass from growing in there. It's hard to weed around asparagus fern because of the thorns. It's unbelievable how much algae the ponds and streambed produce this time of the year, before the water lilies come back from dormancy. I'm sure it is full of plant nutrients, but when you toss it into the garden it makes a thick, dried mat that nothing can grow through....and it doesn't compost very well either. So I decided to try to use it in places where I don't want Bermuda grass to grow. I packed it around the blueberry, blackberry, and asparagus roots too. That's another place it is not fun to weed, not only because of the thorns, but because ants have taken up residence in that particular bed.

It might as well be spring

It's late January and quite pleasant outside....afternoon temperatures in the low 70's. Almost time to start gearing up for major spring planting. I cut back the dead asparagus foliage and found two green spears already pushing their way out. They look delicious, but you're not supposed to harvest in the first year (they were planted last spring) so I'm trying to keep my hands off. There are also a couple of blossoms on the peach tree and the calla lilies are emerging from the ground. One of the broccoli plants has flowered; I read that you could eat broccoli flowers so I'm going to try it. Romaine lettuce has done well, but only one leaf lettuce plant (red) survived and I'm disappointed in the sugar snap peas that have done so well the past two years. No cauliflower yet, but I see one head forming.

We had a bad December frost and in spite of $15o worth of frost cloth and spray, may have lost the two ficus trees in the back yard. The ones in the front yard may make it, as the bark is still green when scratched, but all of them look terrible. Bougainvilla, lantana, and hibiscus look dead but I'm pretty confident they will come back, except perhaps some of the newer ones around the pool. The frost got the nasturtiums just at the wrong time, too.