Broccoli, 'Umpqua'

(B. oleracea) Open-pollinated broccoli has been long neglected in the realm of seed breeding. Several years ago, our extensive trials of all the OP varieties then available proved to be fairly discouraging, with one exception. Umpqua was simply head and shoulders above the pack in growth and flavor. We have often seen Umpqua described in catalogs with the kiss-of-death descriptor, “best suited for home gardens.” Really? We happily grew Umpqua for fresh market and CSA for years and were impressed with its color, taste, vigor, and head size. Growing quite large when given good fertility, it matures over a period of about two weeks with strong side shoots for a couple of weeks more. We’ll leave the “farm suited” weirdly dense, month-long shelf life, tastes-like-cardboard, 10-acres-ready-to-cut-at-7:42AM-sharp-on-Tuesday-July-6th-just-in-time-to-meet-the-truck, modern hybrids to those whose businesses require such qualities. Umpqua is sweet and succulent and has absolutely ruined our children for grocery store broccoli! Great for fresh market but not a shipper.
65-80 days. UO. MP

Packet: 100 seeds

*This seed has tested negative for both Black Leg (Phoma lingam) and Black Rot (Xanthomonus campestris) as required by the WA Dept of Ag crucifer seed quarantine.