Bitter broccoli, besieged beebalm

In my previous post, I was beaming with pride over my broccoli crowns, then expressed my intention to harvest at least my largest this past weekend. Well...once again, there was too much happening, so it wasn't until today that I made it over to the Minton Stable Garden, to find nearly all of it a little past-peak. Not to mention that there was more of it than we'd be able to eat this week. Starting this Sunday, gardeners will have an opportunity to leave surplus veggies in a cooler that will be picked up by a local food pantry the next morning. I think it might be a little too late for my broccoli to participate. I picked most of it today and left one crown still growing, though I think I'll need to harvest that one in the next day or two.

My daughter wanted to try a little of the broccoli. Like she does with all of her veggies, she ate it raw, but she couldn't finish one little floret, because she found it "sour," then later declared it "really bad." I tried it raw, too, and yes, it had a very bitter, strong taste. I felt rather discouraged and regretted that I hadn't picked it sooner. However, I later stir-fried it with some chicken and snowpeas and it tasted alright. Sesame oil to the rescue.

Since we do not have a kitchen scale, we weighed our yield by the not-so-scientific method of having my daughter hold the bag of broccoli while standing on the bathroom scale and subtracting the weight, and then putting it on the scale by itself. Our estimate is that we had about 2 pounds, but since I haven't checked the price of organic broccoli lately, I'll have to postpone my harvest tally.On a different matter, a few days ago I noticed white spots on the leaves of the beebalm in the perennial bed in front of the house. It is most likely a case of powdery mildew, which may have been caused by 1) not quite enough sunlight--they really prefer full sun and these flowers spend their mornings in the shade, 2) too many plants crowded together, and 3) too much moisture from all of the rain. On tomorrow's to-do list: pull out the affected plants and thin out the bed (I did manage to trim back the yew since I took this photo). This video recommends some fungicides, but I'll wait and see if the problem worsens.