Can you help me with broccoli buying etiquette?

I think you’re stuck buying it by the lb. or, you could try buying a box/bag of frozen and just pinching off a bit if they will eat frozen. Our Koi fish here love Cheerios! haha

For some reason I never considered frozen broccoli. Which is odd since I feed them frozen peas on Sundays. The little monsters love the peas. I will give frozen broccoli a go.

If it is sold by the pound I see absolutely no problem. I often break off a few pieces of bokchoy and buy only what I need. I split out cherries from prepackaged bags of cherries. I’m careful to leave behind a bokchoy that still looks full and healthy and easy to sell. Same with anything I leave behind. I treat it like I was the shop owner. Most likely someone else wants a smaller bunch too.

If it’s not sold by the pound then it’s more difficult.

Frozen sounds worth trying. It might be more convenient for you even if you can buy a small amount fresh. You won’t have any spoilage issues. But broccoli not packed right in a box. That is often like a frozen solid block. I buy broccoli in a bag, and I just cook two or three pieces at a time when I’m in the mood.

Fuck it… I’m going to safeway and test this shit. Back in 30.

LOL. Let us know how it goes.

The produce manager will gladly cut a smaller piece for you.

We buy it buy weight, so you can buy one stalk if you want. Can you not freeze it? So you can just pick off however much your fish need? Or can you just buy frozen broccoli?

I just went in and broke some off. The cashier was a bit cheeky and asked WTF without asking WTF. So I explained that it was for my goldfish. Then she thought it was adorable and I talked about how I feed them peas and bananas. I probably could have gotten her number since I showed I am a caring father.

I’m a catch!! Pun intended!

And here is how shit went down.

http://imgur.com/a/9Uny8

We buy it by! weight. Duh.

And good on you @johnpowell. Women love men who are kind to animals. Work it baby!

12¢! A bargain.

Right now I have some water going to warm it up for my little friends.

And yes. I thought it would be more expensive. I was a bit shocked. I was thinking it would be near a dollar.

@johnpowell Haha, that’s great. I had no idea you could just trim off a bit of whatever and buy it like that.

Yeah 12 cents…what a deal! That;s like a giant broccoli tree to a goldfish.

This is the cutest thing I’ve read all week.

@johnpowell – Let’s know how’s your date with the cashier if you’re able to pull it off..)

JP. A long time ago, I dated a woman with a passion for broccoli- raw broccoli, just the berries. She actually habituated me to nibbling on the stuff from ziploc bags, lecturing me on the fantastic benefits of of so much concentrated “iron & chlorophyl”. Turned out she probably got the iron thing wrong, but I carry the stuff with me to this day, and passed the habit on to my kids and (unbelievably) the 2 grandsons who are now at an age to feign embarrassment at my habit for fear of ridicule from their peers. But they still gobble the stuff up at dinner, and know how seek out the dark green or purple stalks.

Well, @johnpowell, at least you have her name.

I have a broccoli story that I’ve already told, so I won’t repeat it here, but I also have a cashier story that might help you one of these days. (And maybe not for decades, so keep it in mind.)

I was shopping at the local Walmart Superstore, where I buy most of my groceries these days, but it was a pretty busy day, and when I got to the checkout the lines were all packed. So I just stood in line with everyone else as the cashier kept ringing up and bagging people’s goods and checking them out. She was an older woman (and take it from a 63-year-old; when I say “older woman”, she was damn ancient) and she was obviously tired from being on her feet and dealing with all of these folks. But she was quiet, and pleasantly, patiently working it all.

When it got to be my turn she greeted me wanly and apologized for how long I had had to wait. She must have been saying that all damn day. I explained, “That’s okay. It’s always my strategy to get in the line for the prettiest cashier, and then I don’t care how long it takes while I get to watch her.”

That caught her off guard. But she was quick, and in the second that it took her to realize what I had said she just blushed, looked down, and sort of batted my comment away with one hand. But when she looked up again … oh, boy, if you could have seen that smile. She really was the prettiest girl in the place then.

Oh, and you can probably pick up remnants and pieces of broccoli at the bottom of the bin, too. If you bag those and buy them, they’ll be making money off what would have been trash.

@CWOTUS Awww…what a sweet story and you are a sweet guy!
It takes so little to make someones day.

Well, this is an exciting thread. I’m going to start sharing my lunch with my koi. I had no idea they liked broccoli.

@ANef_is_Enuf They love Cheerios! The plain kind, you can even look it up online, lots of Koi peeps talk about it.

I’ll have to chuck some of those in the pond, too. Learn something new every day.

I believe you live in England? Do your local grocery markets have those salad bars that are so popular in U.S. stores? If yes, a salad bar usually has chopped broccoli. You could simply take and pay for as much as you need.

Prepared greens cost much more, pound-for-pound, than bulk produce might, but the trade-off – not buying an entire head of broccoli and wasting most of it – should save money.

That cashier finds you lovely and endearing. Please go back and see her again!

Curious: have you tried eating the stems? If you cut off all the green outside, the white interior is nice and crunchy. Sort of like water chestnuts.

Too bad things didn’t work out with Heather! Maybe next time.

Well clearly, the methodology here with Heather is to return to her checkout every few days and only buy, say 6 grapes, 1 carrot, maybe a couple radishes. haha

@johnpowell you might be able to talk to one of the folks in the produce department. They’re the ones who know if something would be considered unsellable.

@ANef_is_Enuf :: It is amazing how much they love peas. My normally friendly fishes get kinda violent over them. I just put them in a cup of cold water and nuke the frozen peas for around 20 seconds and then let them sit around for around a hour. Then I remove the shell so I just have the mushy inside. It is like a MMA fight when I drop them in the water.

*And I use cold water for everything except a shower or bath or washing my hands. You should see what happens when you replace a hot water heater. That should never go in your mouth.

Thank goodness for this Q. It was fun for me, and I’d like to thank the OP.

^^^ You’re so right, @JLeslie. This thread is throwback Fluther.

It really was. :) Yesterday kind of sucked for me otherwise.

Just FYI peas supposedly kinda work as a laxative for fish, but I don’t know if I believe it. I’ve had guppies die from constipation. I was told that if I fed them peas they’d get better but it never helped :\ They did love the peas though.

I love that you’re buying fresh veggies for your goldies, hehehe. I feed my fish from frozen veggies pretty often cuz they love it and it’s good for them. I just soak them in warm water for a bit to thaw them out.

We used to give peas to our tank goldfish until one of them choked on it (he was fine, but it scared the crap out of me, we were too stupid to realize you were supposed to take the shell off.) I feel more comfortable throwing stuff into the pond because the koi are big and the goldfish are 4–5”, so I’m not afraid I’m going to accidentally kill them.

If there is a salad bar where you shop, you could buy as much or as little as you need. Broccoli doesn’t weigh much, so the cost should be minimal.

You can take a single stalk, but not just a bush…..........that would be like taking half of a banana.