Has my broccoli gone too far?

[rober48]

Hello all,
This is my first summer of vegetable gardening and I'm quite encouraged by some of the successes I've had. I think I may have a slight problem with my broccoli though. The seed packet says sow from March to May and harvest from September to November. I didn't sow mine until June 1st so I expected them to be ready towards the end of that September to November window. Having looked at them today though I don't know whether I may have left it too late. There are a couple of pictures of them below. Can anybody confirm that for me or tell me to stop worrying?
Cheers

Neil

[Lesley Jay]

Hi Rober, it does look as if the broccoli is slightly passed it. Ideally it needs to be cut while the head is compact and green before the head starts to turn yellow and the flower buds begin to separate. The broccoli head is made up of tiny flower buds and you can see on your second photo how these buds are separating. If you cut the heads off, the plants might grow more small broccoli head side shoots. Cut the stem on an angle so that the rain can't sit on the cut stem. Try eating the broccoli that doesn't look too bad. You could make soup with it then you haven't lost it completely.

[rober48]

Thanks for the advice Lesley. I think the problem was that the heads didn't grow as big as the broccoli heads you see in supermarkets and so I just let them grow thinking they would get bigger. Before I knew it they were like that. Anyway, I cut them today as you suggested and they didn't taste too bad at all! Thanks again.
Cheers

Neil

[uglygourd]

Ive set green sprouting broccolli and that what it looks like