Romanesco: The Fractal Vegetable

This week Tolt Gardens, also known as "Let Us Farm," had romanesco for sale at the Columbia City Market. On the evolutionary spectrum, romanesco lies somewhere between broccoli and cauliflower. It's pale green, and tastes a little like both.

It's most striking feature is the spiral ring of florettes that climbs to its peak, forming what mathematicians call a "fractal." As I understand it, that's a pattern that occurs with striking frequency in nature, and consists of shapes that mirror one another, but occur in decreasing sizes.

Nature is amazing.