BROCCOLI

'Broccoli' is a plant of the Cabbage family, Brassicaceae (formerly Cruciferae). It is classified as the Italica Cultivar Group of the species ''Brassica oleracea''. Broccoli possesses abundant fleshy green flower heads arranged in a tree-like fashion on branches sprouting from a thick, edible stalk. The large mass of flower heads is surrounded by leaves. Broccoli most closely resembles cauliflower, which is actually just a different cultivar groups of the same species, but broccoli is green rather than white. In the United States, the term refers exclusively to the form with a single large head. This form is called "Calabrese" in the United Kingdom, where sprouting (non-heading) types and those with underdeveloped flower buds are also sold as broccoli.

Contents

History of broccoli

Varieties

Cultivation, preparation and nutritional value

Broccoli in popular culture

In politics

Gallery

References and notes

External links

History of broccoli

The word ''broccoli'' comes from the Latin ''bracchium'', meaning arm^[1], via the Italian ''braccio''. Broccoli is a cultivar of wild cabbage, remaining exactly the same species. Wild cabbage originated along the northern and western coasts of the Mediterranean, where it was apparently domesticated thousands of years ago. That domesticated cabbage was eventually bred into wildly different cultivars, including broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, kale, kohlrabi, and brussels sprouts, all of which remain the same species.
Roman references to a cabbage-family vegetable that may have been broccoli are less than perfectly clear: the Roman natural history writer, Pliny the Elder, wrote about a vegetable that fit the description of broccoli. This would imply that the Romans grew their own broccoli for culinary uses during the 1st century¹. Some vegetable scholars recognize broccoli in the cookbook of Apicius.
Broccoli was an Italian vegetable, as its name suggests, long before it was eaten elsewhere. It is first mentioned in France in 1560, but in 1724 broccoli was still so unfamiliar in England that Philip Miller's ''Gardener's Dictionary'' (1724 edition) referred to it as a stranger in England and explained it as "sprout colli-flower" or "Italian asparagus." In the American colonies, Thomas Jefferson was also an experimentative gardener with a wide circle of European correspondents, from whom he got packets of seeds for rare vegetables such as tomatoes. He noted the planting of broccoli at Monticello along with radishes, lettuce, and cauliflower on May 27 1767. Nevertheless, broccoli remained an exotic in American gardens. In 1775, John Randolph, in ''A Treatise on Gardening by a Citizen of Virginia,'' felt he had to explain about broccoli: "The stems will eat like Asparagus, and the heads like cauliflower."
Italians brought broccoli to North America by 1806^[2], but it did not become popular until the 1920s. Commercial cultivation of broccoli in the United States can be traced to the D'Arrigo brothers, Stephano and Andrea, Italian immigrants from Messina, whose company made some tentative plantings in San Jose, California, in 1922. A few crates were initially shipped to Boston, where there was a thriving Italian immigrant culture in the North End. The broccoli business boomed, with the D'Arrigo's brand name "Andy Boy" named after Stephano's two-year-old son, Andrew, and backed with advertisements on the radio.
Note that some respectable sources claim Albert R. Broccoli's ancestors crossbred cauliflower with either peas^[3] or rabe^[4] to invent broccoli^[5][6][7], but this is certainly untrue, and considered to be an urban legend.
Broccoli and cauliflower, which are actually cultivars of the same species, have been crossbred to produce brocciflower, which was first cultivated in Europe around 1988. Its very pale green heads are densely packed like cauliflower, but it has the flavour of broccoli.

Varieties

There are three commonly grown varieties of broccoli. The 'calabrese' is the most familiar, with large green heads and thick stalks, and is named after Calabria in Italy where it was first cultivated. It is planted in spring and farmed in August.
'Sprouting' broccoli has a larger number of heads with many thin stalks. It is planted in May to be harvested during the winter or early the following year.
'Romanesco' broccoli has a distinctive fractal appearance of its heads, and is yellow-green in colour.
White and purple varieties are also available in some areas.

Cultivation, preparation and nutritional value

Broccoli is a cool-weather crop that does poorly in hot summer weather. Other cultivar groups of ''Brassica oleracea'' include: cabbage (Capitata Group), cauliflower (Botrytis Group), kale and collard greens (Acephala Group), kohlrabi (Gongylodes Group), and Brussels sprouts (Gemmifera Group). Chinese broccoli (Alboglabra Group) is also a cultivar group of ''Brassica oleracea''. It is usually boiled or steamed, but may be eaten raw and has become popular as a raw vegetable in hors-d'oeuvre trays. It is high in vitamin C and soluble fiber and contains the multiple nutrients with potent anti-cancer properties including diindolylmethane and selenium. The 3,3'-Diindolylmethane found in broccoli is a potent modulator of the innate immune response system with anti-viral, anti-bacterial and anti-cancer activity.^{[8] [9]} Broccoli also contains the compound glucoraphanin, which can be processed into an anticancer compound sulforaphane, though the benefits of broccoli is reduced if the vegetable is boiled. Research Says Boiling Broccoli Ruins Its Anti Cancer Properties Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick A high intake of broccoli has been found to reduce the risk of aggressive prostate cancer.^[10] Broccoli leaf is also edible and actually contains more betacarotene than the florets.

Broccoli in popular culture

In 1928, when broccoli was still something of a novelty in the United States, a cartoon appeared in the New Yorker magazine. A mother and child are seated at the table, and the mother says, "It's broccoli, dear." The child replies, "I say it's spinach, and I say the hell with it."^[11]
In the film ''24 Hour Party People'', the Tony Wilson character tells a tale explaining how the invention of broccoli funded the James Bond films.

In politics

United States President George H. W. Bush was known to have an active disdain for broccoli, having actually said so in an offhand remark during his presidency.^[12] In response, a powerful broccoli agriculture lobby sent several tons of it to the White House. This broccoli was promptly donated to the Capital Area Food Bank.^[13] His son, President George W. Bush, mentioned during a 2004 question-and-answer session that he doesn't mind broccoli, but does prefer the florets to the stalk.^[14]

Gallery

References and notes

1. Broccoli at VegParadise.com
2. History of Broccoli and Cauliflower at YourHub.com
3. Albert R. Broccoli's profile at MI6.co.uk
4. Albert R. Broccoli's profile at Klast.net
5. Definitions at FunTrivia.com
6. Profile of Dana Broccoli from The Telegraph
7. Agrichemical and Environmental News at Washington State University
8. Diindolylmethane Information Resource Center at the University of California, Berkeley
9. Diindolylmethane Immune Activation Data Center
10. Prospective study of fruit and vegetable intake and risk of prostate cancer, , VA, Kirsh, Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 2007 (News article)
11. Broccoli cartoon at the Cartoonbank.com
12. What's Your Beef?
13. Chronology
14. President's Remarks at Ask President Bush Event in Ohio

External links

★ PROTAbase on ''Brassica oleracea (cauliflower and broccoli)''

★ Photograph of the distinctive Broccoli romanesco.