(light percussion music) >>The beginning of summer is here, and it's so exciting because there are so many things that are blooming and blossoming, and it's time to harvest a lot of our fruits and vegetables.

One of my favorite things to grow is broccoli.

Yes, you guys, you can start from seed, or you can buy a starter plant at a local nursery.

I love growing broccoli.

Not only is it high in nutritional value, it's just fun to watch the florets grow.

And not only can you eat the florets, but you're also able to eat the leafy greens.

You can saute them.

You can boil them.

You can add smoked meat to them if you like.

You know, Southerners, we love smoked meat.

When it comes to the heat factor, broccoli is not too happy about a lot of heat, so you want to go ahead and pick it before it gets extremely hot in your garden.

Now, what I mean by that is, if you can see this plant here, the florets have started to separate, which means it's gonna go to flower.

The plant is just reproducing itself.

It's trying to create more seeds to fall back into the ground so it'll make a new plant.

Now also, as you can see, I've compacted my little small garden bed.

I have at least 25 broccoli plants here, you guys.

I have harvested some already, and I have some that we're going to harvest today.

And what I like to do is I cut it at a 45 degree angle When it rains, you don't want the rain to puddle just right up onto that root.

You just want it to kind of run off.

And also, once you pick your broccoli head, don't cut the whole plant off and throw it away.

Keep that plant because what's gonna happen is you're gonna have some small broccoli florets that come out of the sides of the stem.

So I have my little garden tool here, and I use the rugged side of the blade.

And what I like to do is simply hold my broccoli head over, and I want to cut just below the last floret, just like that, you guys.

And I like to take mine, you know, just like that.

And you can eat 'em raw, but I like to rinse them off first, and then I'll put 'em in a salad or saute 'em, however you want to do it.

And one thing you want to make sure is to check on your broccoli every single day that you can.

I like to check on mine early morning because you would be surprised how quickly they grow, especially in high temperatures.

Remember to live, love, laugh, grow stuff and eat it.