If the fact that we’ve put February behind us wasn’t reason enough to be cheerful, along comes March and purple sprouting broccoli time. I love this vegetable, not least because it provides some wonderful greens for the kitchen at a time when we’re just about tiring of the root crops such as carrots and parsnips and other veg like beetroot and celeriac have disappeared altogether.

Purple sprouting broccoli (let’s call it PSB) is an amazing vegetable to eat, but it’s also somewhat of a veg-growing oddity. It bucks the “sow in spring, harvest in autumn” convention and spends almost a full year in the ground, surviving all but the toughest of winters and becoming “sow in summer, harvest in spring”. This makes it supremely useful for the home grower because it provides food in the difficult hungry gap months of March and April. This early arrival brings it in ahead of pretty much everything else in the veg patch – it will be May before early peas, potatoes and even salad greens make much of an appearance.

Unlike regular broccoli (properly known as calabrese), which puts all its efforts in to producing one big, densely packed and, dare I say tasteless, central head, PSB is a more gradual and delicate affair. The part we eat are actually the flowering shoots, and the more we harvest, the more it produces. Let’s just say we will be eating lots of it in the next two months. That will also be a great tonic for our sluggish post-winter bodies.

From a taste perspective, the home-grower has all the advantages when it comes to PSB. Like most vegetables, it is at its best when eaten almost immediately after picking and before the sugars turn to less palatable starch. Cooked immediately after harvesting, its flavour is exquisite and it needs just a few minutes of gentle steaming or boiling. Generally speaking, we have it as a side veg, but we will also put it centre stage in a gratin, or as a starter, dipping the shoots in to a tangy dressing (tahini is a great base for a PSB dressing, as are anchovies).

If you are buying PSB, seek out local and recently picked. Try a local farmer’s market or good-quality supermarket. Don’t bother with the cellophane-wrapped “fresh”-from-Kenya alternative. The flavour will disappoint.

Give Peas a Chance

We have launched our Give Peas a Chance campaign with our friends in Cully & Sully and this year’s campaign has a new twist. We are looking for secondary schools to take part in a competition to find Ireland’s next food entrepreneur superstars. Teachers can register for free to take part and we will be sending out kits with everything they need to grow their own peas in the school over the coming weeks. We will set pea-sized challenges each week and at the end we will be looking for shortlisted teams to pitch their recipe, design and brand for a new homegrown and homemade soup. There are prizes worth €5,000 up for grabs including a €3,000 garden for the school and prizes for the teachers and students. To register head along to cullyandsully.com/ourgarden.