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.