Compare prices for fresh broccoli across Edmonton retailers.
Broccoli is harvested as an immature flower head, so it does not ripen or improve after cutting — left to age it only continues opening toward flower, and the whole task is to choose a head that was cut fresh and is still tightly closed. Look for a compact, heavy head with firm, tightly packed florets of a deep green, sometimes carrying a blue-green or purple cast, and a stalk that is firm and snaps rather than bends. The single most reliable cue is the colour of the tiny buds, or beads, on the surface: when they are uniformly dark green and closed the head is fresh, but as broccoli ages the buds loosen, pale, and turn yellow — the first sign of the flowers beginning to open — and a head showing yellowing is past its best even though it is still edible. Pass over heads with limp or rubbery stalks, with soft, slimy, or browning patches on the florets, with a dried, split, or woody-looking cut end, or with any strong cabbagey, sulfurous smell, all of which point to age or breakdown.
Every head of broccoli is ready to eat the moment it is bought, so having good broccoli later in the week is a matter of storage rather than ripening. Broccoli is one of the most perishable vegetables in the produce aisle: it respires quickly and is highly sensitive to ethylene, the ripening gas given off by apples, pears, tomatoes, and bananas, which speeds the yellowing of its buds — so keep it cold, keep it humid, and keep it away from ripening fruit. Store it unwashed in a loose or perforated bag in the refrigerator crisper, where commercial conditions near 0 °C at very high humidity are best mimicked; sealed completely airtight it can develop off odours, while left dry and uncovered it wilts, so a vented bag that holds moisture without trapping it is the right balance. Even under good conditions the realistic home window is only several days to about a week, and warmth shortens it sharply. A head that has begun to wilt but is otherwise firm, green, and sound has only lost water and is fine to cook; trimming the dry base and standing the stalk briefly in cold water can crisp it back up.
A head of broccoli is past its useful window when the florets turn soft, slimy, or mushy, when the buds yellow heavily and the head smells strongly sulfurous, or when dark brown to black spots or fuzzy mould appear, all of which mean it should be discarded rather than trimmed. Light yellowing of the buds alone is a sign of age rather than spoilage — such broccoli is still safe to eat, though its flavour grows stronger and more cabbage-like when cooked, so it is best used quickly. In Edmonton the main cold-weather caution is freezing: broccoli keeps well right down near 0 °C but is injured at about -1 °C and below, where the tissue turns water-soaked and browns and then goes soft as it thaws, so a bag left in a sub-zero vehicle, an unheated garage, or pressed against the freezing back wall of the fridge will come out limp and off-coloured. Bring it indoors promptly in winter and keep it cold but never frozen.
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