Broccoli Rabe and Arugula

Broccoli Rabe

Pronunciation: [RAHB]

A vegetable related to both the cabbage and turnip family, the leafy green broccoli rabe has 6- to 9-inch stalks and scattered clusters of tiny broccoli like buds.

I had to look that up because there is a story behind this broccoli. The dark colored leaves in the picture above is called broccoli rabe. The lighter colored leaves are aragula plants, very tasty and good for stir fry recipes. Anyway, my husband bought a packet of seedling material from the gardening section at SM mall here in Baguio City. This one packet contained several different kinds of vegetables and were wrapped in their own individual foil pouch. One of the pouch is that of the broccoli and the other is aragula and we planted these side by side in one of the garden beds. They both grew well and when it was time to gather, the aragula plants were harvested first and we left the broccoli behind. We thought that the broccoli needed more time to form into a ball-like cluster, just like the ones that we normally buy in the market.

Then one day, my sister-in-law Emy asked me why we were not gathering the broccoli plants. She said that the vegetables have been ready for harvest a week ago, in which I replied that no, they're not matured enough yet. My husband and I were waiting for the plants to form into a ball-like cluster and since they're not in that stage yet, so they're still young. So then she explained to us that what we had planted was a different kind of broccoli. In fact, they used to grow these in her hometown in Kapangan Benguet and they were sold at a higher price than the regular broccoli that we know of. Ha-ha, that was really something new to us. So anyway, we both gathered the broccoli and divided the produce between us. I cooked my share in a stir fry recipe and it tasted good but I found it a little tough. Had we known that this kind will not form into a ball-like cluster, we would have gathered them earlier while they were younger and they would have been more tender. It's a lesson learned in gardening with vegetables for newbies like us.

Converting a Rock Garden into a Vegetable Garden.

This area used to be a small rock garden in the backyard. It was filled with  different kinds of ornamental plants and flowers that we have collected over the years. There were too many plants of different varieties that I could not even name them all. So anyway, one day, my husband and I were talking about the idea of having a small garden in the backyard. The more that we talked about it, the more that we liked the idea of raising our own organic vegetables. The problem is, we did not have the space to make a garden in the backyard but we had a small rock garden. So we talked about the possibility of converting our small rock garden into a vegetable garden. We both agreed that we could put all the flowers that we like into pots so we could move them around the property or wherever we wanted them to be and make use of the space for a vegetable garden.

Well, it's easier said than done.  It took us about two weeks just to clear out the area of small stones and gravel, it was hard work but it was worth it. Because of space constraints, we were able to make three small plots only. Well, three plots is actually better than nothing. We used stones of various shapes and sizes just to make a retaining wall along the sides of the garden plots to contain the soil in the raised beds.  Then my husband made a one-foot walkway in between the two rows of raised beds and he laid some flat stones over this walkway so it will not have to be muddy specially when it rains. We bought a roll of three feet tall 1 x 1 hole wire mesh material and used this as a fence to enclose the perimeter of the garden. Now that we have some native chickens in the backyard, I'm glad that we decided to put up this fence in the garden. This fence keeps the chickens out and deters them from messing with the vegetable garden. There is a runt among the chickens who is an escape artist and we always find her scratching near the garden fence.