by Lisa Giroday, Sandra Lopuch and Sam Philips | At this time of year, we get particularly excited about purple sprouting broccoli, aka “garden candy”. There’s nothing like raiding your garden in early Spring and finding these sprouting delectable shoots in all their purple glory just waiting to be harvested!

These little crowns sprout continuously typically between February and May. Purple sprouting broccoli produces multiple shoots for a period of time, which is different from producing a large crown that is harvested once. Pair an earlier maturing purple sprouting broccoli, Purple Sprouting Red Spear, which typically matures February to March, with the slightly later-maturing Purple Sprouting Rudolf, which typically matures March-May, and you have a longer harvesting period. It’s a welcome treat after winter, so harvest or find some while you still can. Eat them raw and fresh from the garden or stir fry them with some kale shoots (the flowering part of the kale plant that you may be seeing right now).

Interested on growing some for next spring? Check back with us in July – we’ll hook you up with some starts for the garden. These veggies need to “overwinter”

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Victory Gardens is a team of local urban farmers for hire. Lisa, Sandra and Sam help transform tired or underused residential and commercial green spaces into food producing gardens. Their goal is to challenge the way communities use space and to participate in the change needed to consume food more sustainably. For the rest of the growing season, they’ve hooked up with Scout to share some cool tips and tricks on how to get the best from of our own backyards.