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[Clansgian AT wmconnect.com]

> >You're living your quote. ;) Even James struggles with brussel sprouts. ;)
> Maybe this is your year.
> 

I do indeed.  And it's one of my most favored vegetables for the table.

Last summer I got two good decent 'messes' of sprouts, the first and only in 
several years.  They defied all he conventional wisdom, grown in loose soil, 
grown as a spring crop, etc.  The fall crop was seared to a crisp by the 
ghastly dry and heat of August and September.

I sowed some in flats this morning.  Catskill, I think. I've got a few Rubine 
seed left for later.

Yet, I've still got broccoli in the freezer from last spring's crop.  In 
kinder times I would only freeze late fall broccoli, but since the drought 
bade 
fair to return with a vengence, I froze a lot of spring broccoli and sure 
enough, the fall broccoli was sparce and of poor quality.

By the bye, this is the manner of freezing broccoli we currently use.  Very, 
very lightly steam blanche the broccoli and place it on cookie sheets (the 
crowns not touching) until it freezes hard.  Then prepare some very cold 
water 
with a very little salt in it and dip the frozen crowns in water (which 
freezes 
to it) and put them back on the cookie sheet and into the freezer.  Repeat 
this until there is about 1/8" of ice on the broccoli then pack it into large 
bags and put it back in the freezer.  From a large 2 gal. bag (or larger) you 
take out only what you want at a time without disturbing the rest.

The big central crown in a minor part of the plant's production.  Harvest it 
when it is quite small and every joint on the plant will then make a new 
crown 
and the plant will continue doing this for months.  18 months is not unheard 
of when the plant can winter over in peaceful dormancy.  Not this winter 
though, the 4 degrees we had killed all such.

I want to throw out another observation in the 'for what it's worth' 
department.  One hears a lot about potting soil formulae.  The uber-rich 
potting soil, 
says I, is a mistake.  I believe it was Rudolph Steiner that promoted the 
breakfast-lunch-dinner pricincple of plant propogation.  A seed should have 
relatively poor soil, then be transplanted into richer soil in pots, then 
transplanted into a still richer garden.  That is, potting soil should not be 
richer 
than the garden where the plants will go.

The reason for this, according to the doctrine, is that the seeling seeing a 
nutrient poor medium, grows an elaborate root system to make the best use of 
it.  When it is transplanted into a richer soil, it is equiped for super 
growth.  But if we plant the seed in very rich potting soil, it grows roots 
suitable 
for the very rich ground.  When transplanted into poorer soil, the lazy roots 
are not equiped to wrest the nutrients from it and the plant stunts.

So the potting soil I use is peat with a little wood ashes in it, or creek 
sand with a very little compost added.

James