A big surprise!
By Fleur
@Fleura (29097)
United Kingdom
May 4, 2022 2:44am CST
I try to grow quite a lot of vegetables, with varying degrees of success.
Normally I can manage tomatoes, courgettes (zucchini), assorted beans, a few peas and plenty of kale and spinach, but I’ve had very limited success with carrots or cauliflower.
Now that it’s spring I have some rows of young peas and beans just getting going, plus a few big old plants of cruciferous vegetables - sprouts, kale and the like - left from last year that I just haven’t cleared away yet.
So after we were away for a few days lest week, I got a big surprise when we returned and I had a little walk around the veg patch. One of the craggy old vegetables had produced an enormous cauliflower! I was so impressed I had to photograph it.
It really was huge as well, we’ve been eating it for two days already and still have half left.
Do you like cauliflower, and how do you prepare it?
All rights reserved. © Text and image copyright Fleur 2022.
21 people like this
24 responses
@prashu228 (37526)
• India
4 May 22
Even i failed with cauliflower
i like cauliflower but not that much
i like it when fried with potatoes
5 people like this
@prashu228 (37526)
• India
4 May 22
@Fleura cauliflower bhajis ?
how do they look like 
1 person likes this
@Fleura (29097)
• United Kingdom
4 May 22
Oh yes I listed things I like to do with cauliflower for @DaddyEvil but I forgot cauliflower bhajis!
3 people like this
@Fleura (29097)
• United Kingdom
4 May 22
@prashu228 Just like florets of cauliflower dipped in batter.
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/user/210038/recipe/keralan-cauliflower-bhaji
1 person likes this
@DaddyEvil (137145)
• United States
4 May 22
Pretty and I will both eat cauliflower but I prefer it baked in a cheese sauce... she prefers to make mashed cauliflower with it. (I won't eat it that way. *shrug*) We rarely buy fresh cauliflower and I've never tried growing it. (I'd be really tired of it after two meals from it. 
)
)3 people like this
@prashu228 (37526)
• India
4 May 22
DE @DaddyEvil mashed cauliflower how does it look and taste like
how does it look and taste like3 people like this
@Fleura (29097)
• United Kingdom
4 May 22
I like cauliflower cheese too, that's a favourite here. I also like it roasted, with various types of dressing. Regular steamed or microwaved as a side dish is OK, and I like it raw too, preferably with blue cheese dressing. Then there's potato and cauliflower curry too!
1 person likes this
@DaddyEvil (137145)
• United States
4 May 22
@prashu228 Pretty told me it would taste almost exactly like mashed potatoes... It has a flavor like raw cabbage but the texture of mashed potatoes. (I like raw cabbage but not with that texture.)
3 people like this
@Fleura (29097)
• United Kingdom
4 May 22
Sometimes I grow things that are OK, but I'm not that crazy about.... but then I just have to try different ways of preparing them until I find ways I like. It worked with gooseberries, rhubarb, kale, Brussels sprouts... the only thing I grew that I just could not like was Jerusalem artichokes. Had to get rid of those, which was a shame.
@LadyDuck (457249)
• Switzerland
4 May 22
This is beautiful. I cannot eat any kind of cruciferous vegetables, they seem to trigger my IBS. I did two days ago as I made for my husband and I have been sick all the night and all the day yesterday. I plant the potatoes that are showing too many sprouts and I noticed they are already growing.
3 people like this
@Vikingswest1 (6305)
• United States
4 May 22
Very nice. I always love surprises in the garden. Last year, I got two tomato plants out of the compost bin.
I have grown many of the same things here but carrots do really well.
I really like the volunteers that just come back for some reason.
I love cauliflower but I just eat it raw. I don't like it cooked at all.
It goes into salad, into cold tuna and chicken salad and I'll eat it dipped in dressing.
2 people like this
@Vikingswest1 (6305)
• United States
4 May 22
@Fleura
Exactly. The smell makes it impossible to eat it cooked. Baked isn't so bad though.
I'll sometimes eat it with cheese cubes too. Extra sharp cheddar. Yum.
1 person likes this
@DaddyEvil (137145)
• United States
4 May 22
When Pretty was little, we'd buy raw cauliflower and raw broccoli, cut both into finger-food sized pieces and eat them with Ranch dressing while watching television. I'll still eat raw broccoli but would rather not eat cauliflower.
3 people like this
@JudyEv (325321)
• Rockingham, Australia
5 May 22
That looks a really great cauliflower! Don't you just love surprises like that? 
Just as a matter of interest - my mother always soaked carrot seeds overnight in kero. She mixed the seed with sand before planting to help spread the seed more and she would put insect powder along the rows when she expected the seeds to start sprouting. I managed to grow carrots once and it was like buried treasure when I came to pull them up, always wondering how big the next one would be.
Just as a matter of interest - my mother always soaked carrot seeds overnight in kero. She mixed the seed with sand before planting to help spread the seed more and she would put insect powder along the rows when she expected the seeds to start sprouting. I managed to grow carrots once and it was like buried treasure when I came to pull them up, always wondering how big the next one would be. 1 person likes this
@Fleura (29097)
• United Kingdom
5 May 22
I do like nice surprises.
That sounds like quite a palaver with the carrots, but it obviously worked. I might have to try it. I have tried mixing more sand into the soil, and also vermiculite, because we have clay soil so rather heavy and unsuitable for carrots I guess.
I am getting better at growing parsnips, so perhaps that's a step in the right direction.
1 person likes this
Though I am not fan of this vegetable.
@Hildasalom (937)
• Nairobi, Kenya
4 May 22
I have never ever eaten that in my life, I don't even hear people in my country talking about those as a meal
1 person likes this
@Hildasalom (937)
• Nairobi, Kenya
4 May 22
@Fleura I have never heard off a place that grows cauliflower in my country. I think the weather doesn't support it's growth here like you have just said.
1 person likes this
@oahuwriter (26780)
• United States
5 May 22
That's a beauty! A wonderful surprise, indeed!! I have eaten cauliflower, in my life, but it's big, too big for me to buy. You just don't see it cut in fours...a fourth is all I need.
1 person likes this
@Fleura (29097)
• United Kingdom
5 May 22
You're right, a whole cauliflower is rather too much at once. Here you can sometimes buy small bags of florets, but of course they are more expensive. You can also buy it frozen, but I found those turned out rather soggy when cooked, or maybe I was just doing it wrong.
1 person likes this
@oahuwriter (26780)
• United States
6 May 22
@Fleura
No, it's soggy. So I prefer fresh, but, local stores, si far sells whole cauliflower.
That's ok. I'll watch for small frozen pkg.
That's ok. I'll watch for small frozen pkg.1 person likes this
@sharonelton (24828)
• Lichfield, England
4 May 22
Wow! That is wonderful! I use frozen cauliflower from the supermarket and I only need to use one piece every Monday in my dinner. Once it's thawed I chop it up smaller to put in my Moroccan red lentil stew.
1 person likes this
@sharonelton (24828)
• Lichfield, England
5 May 22
@Fleura Thank you very much. It was very tasty. The cauliflower goes in the pot with the other ingredients, stir fried for a bit, then water is added, brought to a boil, then the best turned down to low and simmered for about 20 minutes. After that, cooked lentils are added and it's summers for another 10 minutes.
1 person likes this
@youless (112100)
• Guangzhou, China
6 May 22
You are very professional to grow vegetables. Usually we fry the cauliflower with bacon. And I also create an interesting way to eat it. Just steam the cauliflower and then dip it with soy sauce and wasabi. The taste is nice like eating sushi
1 person likes this
@allen0187 (58438)
• Philippines
4 May 22
Grats on this.
I usually add it in veggie soup.
1 person likes this
@LeaPea2417 (36392)
• Toccoa, Georgia
4 May 22
That's wonderful! I wish I could grow cauliflower. I like it raw with dip or steamed.
1 person likes this
@wolfgirl569 (94747)
• Marion, Ohio
4 May 22
I dont like it but that was a great surprise
1 person likes this
@DesirousDreamer (34783)
• Peoria, Arizona
4 May 22
That is amazing! Caulifower is great, we normally have it raw, sometimes we cook it in a stir fry or something like that, but mostly just raw so not too fancy, but it is good haha
1 person likes this
