Early Purple Sprouting Broccoli

200 days - Instead of being developed to put all of its energy into producing a single, densely packed head as is popular on today's produce stands, 'Early Purple Sprouting' broccoli produces loads of shoots, each with small purple heads, lending itself to longer and more abundant harvests. The photographs above were taken on our farm on April 2 and are of plants that were over-wintered in our field. If you look at the photo of the whole plant, you can see that we did no cultivation and not only did the plants compete successfully with the weeds, they also produced loads of food! A treat to have fresh produce that early in the year in our neck of the woods.

A very old variety, 'Early Purple Sprouting' broccoli was historically used for over-wintering for spring harvesting. It was once quite popular and grown extensively throughout Europe. According to  MM. Vilmorin-Andrieux in "The Vegetable Garden" (1885), there were more than forty different forms grown in England alone.