A Fall Garden

We visited my parents over the weekend at their home in Northeast Louisiana. They recently planted their fall garden, and I enjoyed capturing some of the pretty green leafy vegetables with my camera. Do you know what this one is?

If you guessed Broccoli, you are correct!

The plants themselves were pretty, but each one of them held a little lagniappe hidden deep within their centers.

I was delighted when I leaned over one of the plants, looked down into its center, and found this perfectly-formed little broccoli sprout.

I love its rich emerald green color ...

Isn't that awesome!

I hope you will click on the next picture to enlarge it and see the hundreds, or perhaps even thousands, of tiny buds that make up the florets.

I wonder if, like some flowers and plants, there are the same number of buds on each floret.

My mother also planted this Butternut Lettuce ...

It has silky leaves that are loosely packed around a small head, and is supposed to have a delicate, smooth taste.

This next vegetable is one that Mama and Daddy planted "just for fun," more than any other reason.

It's Brussels Sprouts, and I don't think I've ever had the pleasure of eating one.

Brussels Sprouts are a slow-growing vegetable, and even though these already have cute little baby cabbage-like sprouts growing in their centers, they won't be ready to harvest for three months, or longer.

It should be fun watching the little "baby sprouts" grow.

They also planted turnip greens in their garden, but I was so excited about the little broccoli and brussels sprouts that I totally overlooked them. You can see them in the background in this picture:

Mama cooked some freshly picked turnip greens for lunch, along with purple hull peas, cornbread, and baked sweet potatoes. It just doesn't get much better than that, folks!

The jury is still out on the Brussels Sprouts. I'll let you know how that goes when it's time to harvest them.