Harvesting Brussels sprouts
That was interesting! I’ve harvested Brussels sprouts by picking the individual heads, but for our first bigger harvest of about 60 plants, to speed things up, I decided to take the whole thing. First try: chopping the base of the stem with the machete-like harvest knife was like hitting a piece of hardwood. Wow! Tough and cut-resistant… Next up, a sharp hatchet fared no better: a solid whack hardly penetrated. So, we pulled ‘em up, roots and all. They set in pretty good, but the main roots are shallow, so even with knocking off the clumped soil, this went quickly. Next, we discovered that removing the roots is easily accomplished with a short, fairly rigid hand saw. Once we figured out the right starting angle, one and half full strokes cut through the stems like butter: zip-zip-zip! Back to the harvest knife: swipe off the head, and then, holding the base of the stem, about four downward lopping strokes, rotating after each, sheared off the leaves. Kinda odd looking results, but efficient all around. The sprouts, catching up from the summer drought, haven’t all filled out, still, a healthy yield of full-size to tiny heads from each one. It was a completely novel, different harvest process than for all the other veggies. All the chopping and cutting was…fun!
Somewhat related posts: • Brussels sprouts • Brussels sprouts for Christmas? • More hands on deck • First field transplant of the year • Zinnia vs calendula
Robin said,
October 22, 2007 @ 4:07 pm
Wow! The Brussels sprouts picture is awesome. They look great.
Deborah Dowd said,
October 25, 2007 @ 7:49 pm
Don’t you love the way brussels sprouts grow? We grew some years ago, and it was cool even thought the cabbage worms got to the sprouts before we did!
Steve Mudge said,
October 29, 2007 @ 11:58 pm
That’s a very innovative waying of packaging Brussell Sprouts for sale! Looks great.