Garden Quiz Question #2

What do you think these things are?

No they are not some weird kind of legume, and as far as I know, nobody eats them in this form.

A hint: this is part of a food plant well past when it should have been harvested--basically, I got lazy. These are seed pods.


Typically, you'd see a huge mess of pods like in this picture. (I separated the ones in the pic above.)

Another hint: if you click on this picture and view it at full size, you'll notice in the lower-left a lady-bug feasting on a bunch of aphids. That's the hint... aphids LOVE this plant! In fact, that's why I never harvested them--the aphids got there first.

Next year I hope to stay on top of it better and keep the aphids away. Blasting the plants with water each day should help, or maybe using floating row covers, or a spray made out of canola oil and ivory dish soap...

Gotta do something so we can enjoy this...


Yeah, those first two pictures above are of a broccoli plant a few months past harvest time. The little sprig turns into a cluster of dainty little yellow flowers which, when pollinated, produce the mess of seed pods shown in the middle picture.