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Oklahoma Agriculture in the Classroom

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Food & Fun Recipes

Broccoli Trees

Ingredients (Per 5 students)
  • ¼ cup light sour cream
  • ⅓ cup mayonnaise
  • ½ teaspoon sugar
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  • 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh spinach, basil or other fresh or dried herb
  • 4 carrots
  • 3 cups broccoli florets
  • paper plates
Instruction
  1. Prepare a dip by combining the sour cream, mayo, lemon juice and spinach or herb in a medium size mixing bowl.
  2. To make the trees, cut each carrot in half widthwise and then lengthwise into four pieces.
  3. Assemble the trees on the plates by laying three carrot pieces side by side for a trunk and placing the broccoli florets to look like leaves. Spread dip under the trunks to serve as the forest floor.
Research Activity

Use an online search engine or library references to research trees that grow well in Oklahoma. Students will draw two of the trees they researched and then classify them as deciduous or evergreen.

Related AITC Lesson
Broccoli Trivia
  • Broccoli has been served up for dinner for at least 2,000 years.
  • It is likely that Thomas Jefferson was the first person to grow broccoli in the United States. He recorded his first planting of broccoli on May 27, 1767. Americans have grown broccoli in their gardens for about 200 years, but it was not popular until the 1920s. The first commercially-grown broccoli was grown and harvested in New York, then planted in the 1920s in California.
  • The name "broccoli" comes for the Latin word brachium, which means "branch," or "arm." Roman farmers called broccoli "the five green fingers of Jupiter."
  • Broccoli was first grown in the Italian province of Calabria and was given the name Calabrese.
  • Broccoli consumption has increased over 940 percent over the last 25 years.
  • Ounce for ounce, broccoli has as much calcium as a glass of milk and more vitamin C than an orange. A 1/3 pound stalk of broccoli has more vitamin C than 2 ½ pounds of oranges or 204 apples.It is one of the best sources of vitamin A and has more fiber than a slice of wheat bran bread. Broccoli is also a good source of potassium, folacin, iron and fiber. It contains a few important phytochemicals: beta-carotene, indoles and isothiocyanates. Phytochemicals prevent carcinogens (cancer causing substances) from forming. They also stop carcinogens from getting to target cells and help boost enzymes that detoxify carcinogens.
  • Broccoli is a cool season vegetable. It grows well in Oklahoma gardens in early spring and in the fall.