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A Scientist's Quest For Perfect Broccoli
HonorPoncaCityDotCom writes "For all the wonders of fresh broccoli, in most parts of the country it is only available from local growers during the cooler weeks at either end of the growing season, nowhere near long enough to become a fixture in grocery stores or kitchens. But now Michael Moss writes in the NY Times that Thomas Bjorkman is out to change all that by creating a new version of the plant that can thrive in hot, steamy summers like those in New York, South Carolina or Iowa and is easy and inexpensive enough to grow in large volumes. And Bjorkman's quest doesn't stop there: His crucifer is also crisp, subtly sweet and utterly tender when eaten fresh-picked and aims to maximize the concentration of glucoraphanin, a mildly toxic compound used by plants to fight insects that in humans may stimulate our bodies' natural chemical defenses to aid in preventing cancer and warding off heart disease. The Eastern Broccoli Project's goal is to create a regional food network for an increasingly important and nutritious vegetable that may serve as a model network for other specialty crops to help shift American attitudes toward fruits and vegetables by increasing their allure and usefulness in cooking, while increasing their nutritional loads. 'If you've had really fresh broccoli, you know it's an entirely different thing,' says Bjorkman, a plant scientist at Cornell University. 'And if the health-policy goal is to vastly increase the consumption of broccoli, then we need a ready supply, at an attractive price.'"
Obama claims broccoli is his favorite food
Quite a contrast to President George HW Bush: 'I'm President,' So No More Broccoli!
It was a proclamation that every child, and many adults, have dreamed of making.
President Bush declared today that he never, ever, wants to see another sprig of broccoli on his plate, whether he is on Air Force One or at the White House or anywhere else in the land.
''I do not like broccoli,'' the President said, responding to queries about a broccoli ban he has imposed aboard Air Force One, first reported this week in U.S. News and World Report. ''And I haven't liked it since I was a little kid and my mother made me eat it. And I'm President of the United States, and I'm not going to eat any more broccoli!''
much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
... eat Romanesco broccoli.
Won't somebody think of the children!?
that's all.
I'd rather eat paprika laced with bugs for the same effect.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
Cue the Luddites telling us how bad every last thing that can be thought of as a GMO is. Maybe this scientist will get threatening calls, mail, etc. now from crazies that this information is available. Hell, even Mike Elgan (https://plus.google.com/+MikeElgan/posts) might post one of his anti-GMO rants about this.
The distinction seems pretty narrow, depending on what you do and don't classify as "genetic engineering". There might not be a distinction at all. We'll have an answer if Bjorkman succeeds and then files for a patent.
Dr. Hibbert: Another broccoli-related death.
Marge: But I thought broccoli was...
Dr. Hibbert: Oh yes. One of the deadliest plants on earth. It tries to warn you itself with its terrible taste.
Broccoli is already patented by Monsanto.
We're not talking about a genetically mutilated Monsanto broccoli, but they patented open source broccoli.
http://www.realfarmacy.com/monsanto-patent-on-natural-broccoli-seeds/
Privacy is terrorism.
...in most parts of the country it is only available from local growers during the cooler weeks at either end of the growing season...
What country is this you speak of? AFAIK broccoli is on the shelves of my local stores pretty much all year. Sure, it's imported from somewhere insanely far away like China or Africa or Tierra del Fuego half the time, but it's there.
Not that I eat it, mind you. It's on the banned list, like Brussels sprouts. As Nicholas Freeling said about British peas, all I can suggest is that it be put into concrete barrels with radioactive waste and the Mafia, and sunk in the ocean.
--
"I regret to say that we of the FBI are powerless to act in cases of oral-genital intimacy, unless it has in some way obstructed inter-state commerce." -- J Edgar Hoover
First take a beef patty and grill it over a charcoal or propane grill for 8 minutes, 4 on each side. While doing that toast a hamburger bun. Rest the patty for a minute, put on the bun and dress with some ketchup, mustard, a few pickles and some cheese.(Lettuce, onion, and tomatoes are optional.) Then take the broccoli and throw it to the rabbits in your backyard so you'll have some cute bunnies to watch while you eat your burger. (Oh, a don't forget to have a beer or coke while you're enjoying that perfect broccoli.)
Did you know 80 to 90% of the moderators on slashdot wouldn't recognize a troll even if one dragged them under a bridge.
Not growing it
You can grill broccoli too you know. I find that meat is often overrated and vegetables to be much better main dishes than most would assume.
I like broccoli but, like many people, I don't feel so well after I eat very much of it.
This sounds like the end of broccoli. Let's genetically modify it to pack itself with modified corn syrup, then even healthy vegetables can make you fat!
Also, the only reason I can think for people not liking broccoli is cooking it to death. It needs gentle treatment. 'Al dente' purple-sprouting broccoli was a real treat when I was a child at home, when it was in season.
It's not the bitter taste, it's the sulphurous, garbage dump like stink that some just don't seem to perceive.
Supertasters, approximately a quarter of the world's population, have the ability to taste PROP and PTC, finding them incredibly bitter while the rest of the population cannot taste them at all. (Supertasters have other differences from non-supertasters, too, including a larger number of fungiform papillae on the surface of the tongue.)
Plants of the Brassica family, which includes broccoli (as well as cabbage, cauliflower, and Brussels sprouts) contain a compound similar to PTC. People who like broccoli are living in a genetic world supertasters can only dream of; even the smell of the Brassica family is immediately repulsive to supertasters. This is believed due to the genotypes they carry of the TAS2R38 gene, which codes for a bitter taste receptor.
Frankly, I don't think Dr. Bjorkman's work will be done unless he gets the PTC-related compounds out of broccoli.
Beer.
Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
Safer? The bad taste is a feature. It tells you your food is no longer fresh and possibly unsafe to eat.
Or, you know, we could learn to eat vegetables that are in season locally instead of trying to live off of a handful of vegetables year-round.... Kale is amazing, green mustards and chard... amazing greens and definitely under-appreciated.
As a side note, Romanesco broccoli is probably the best kind. Steam it and eat it as is! Or, if you'd like, with just a dab of good olive oil and a pinch of salt/pepper. Some people like to add a little lemon juice as well. This is how I usually eat broccoli and I've never been let down. Also, I don't seem to get an upset digestion after consuming the Romanesco variety as opposed to the traditional broccoli, this also holds true for broccolini (or broccolette).
A black cat crossing your path signifies that the animal is going somewhere. -- Groucho Marx
Cauliflour? Is that used for baking caulibread and caulicakes?
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
We just pack the broccoli in styrofoam boxes with a bit of ice. Seems to work great. The stores just store the boxes in a cold room upon delivery. Rocket surgery, I know.
Also, if you think broccoli tastes bad then I suggest the problem is your cooking skills or your belief in anti-vegetable propaganda (probably fed to you as a child) and not the vegetable.
I wonder if Broccoli can be gassed like apples. Most people are unaware that the "fresh" apples they get in store are actually a few years old. The secret is keeping them in a store room filled with a gas to stop them from ripening further and going off.
Being able to taste bitterness is just the starting point, you can learn to like it. Few people really enjoy their first real beer (as in one with hop bitterness, not the faux lagers youngsters prefer) but quickly learn to like it. Same thing happens with vegetables, though obviously plenty of folk never gain mature tastes.
Personally I'm worried about this mention of 'sweet', does the world really need another dumbed down food with it's distinctive flavours stripped back to what lazy, immature tastes can cope with? That's how we got flavourless tomatoes, lettuce with no hint of bitterness or other actual flavour, apples that taste like water and sweet sprouts. I like my food pleasantly challenging, not turned into tasteless mush.
Well IMO steaming broccoli is the problem, never really liked it much that way. Now baked in the oven is a game changer for me, love it love it, oh and raw isn't bad either.
I like broccoli, but I also like the fact that most vegetables, fruits and other things are seasonal. One of the results of supermarkets always having everything - strawberries, apples, everything - is that you can only get the varieties that either keep indefinitely, can be force-grown or can be shipped in from the other side of the globe, which means you can only get apples that are like wood, strawberries like potatoes etc.
The other effect is of course that it all becomes commonplace and therefore less attractive. It makes a huge difference when you haven't tasted oranges since last Christmas, and they start arriving just around November or there abouts. Even things like green beans and cabbages taste great when you haven't seen them for months.
I am a supertaster, and yeah, there are certain types of bitterness that even we can learn to like. Frex, gunpowder tea weaned me off sweetened tea, and now I drink all tea plain and bitter. And I like a light crisp bitterness in my beer, but not the bitter =aftertaste= that some has.
But there's a difference between flavorless and subtle: stuff like lettuce need not be bitter to have flavor -- to a supertaster, things like head lettuce and plain soda crackers can have subtle flavors which other people just can't detect.
As to broccoli... I'm not fond of it, but I did discover a peculiarity of broccoli grown in the desert (temps up to 122F, extremely alkali soil with no detectable nitrogen): it never forms a head, but rather it bolts immediately, ie. makes a loose broomlike cluster that's not really harvestable... but when it blooms, the blossoms are delicious and lightly sweet, like a non-bitter broccoli. I was amazed.
~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
Sautee a half kilo of Brussels sprouts in butter, fry up a half kilo of bacon, stir them up with a half kilo of sour cream.
The hoboroadie has to double the amounts if he's going to share
They feared that it could be used to suppress protest or support unpopular rule.
I'm still working on my Brassica-fu here on the farm, but one row of cabbages can range from sweet, to hot like horseradish, or hardly edible, depending on conditions and maturity.
Perhaps some were subjected to poorly grown or prepared Crucifers, who otherwise might have found them palatable.
They feared that it could be used to suppress protest or support unpopular rule.