Every season, the garden grows a few “boutique” crops. They might cost the garden more to grow, in garden hours, in soil nutrition needs, or all of they above. They don’t always yield huge harvests. Some seasons, such as the year of the peanut-growing experiment, they hardly produce anything.
This year the Brussels sprouts grew beautifully from Cate Farm seedlings. It’s a boutique crop that’s delicious and brings joy. Remaining in the garden for a few frosts makes them sweeter and tastier. Having a nice, big, tasty food crop to harvest once fall has really set in uplifts gardeners’ spirits.
This season, gardener Grace stewarded the Brussels sprouts beds, ensuring they got the attention they needed.
When Grace noticed sprouts starting to brown—perhaps from pests earlier in the season—she called for an earlier-than-usual harvest day. Still, temperatures had been dipping and the sprouts had been kissed by two or three sweet frosts.
Instead of pulling thick stalks from the ground, Grace suggested cutting off each stalk above the root and digging out the roots later. This eliminated the step of wrestling stalks from the ground, battering delicate sprouts, and covering them in soil, resulting in the need to handle them further while cleaning them.
Stacking the stalks in wheelbarrows to transport from the garden for separating makes for a rough ride. Instead, gardeners handed off one or two stalks at a time, bucket-brigade-style.
Gardeners then walked each and every stalk up to the picnic tables.
Next step: Remove all sprouts from each stalk. Separate them into high-quality sprouts for gardeners’ shares and seconds, or extra-small or slightly sketchy sprouts for gardeners to take or leave.
Then, gardeners divided the “firsts,” or the best sprouts, into shares for every garden volunteer’s household. While most of the garden is “harvest as much as you can eat,” or “harvest enough for a a few meals,” the garden has a few share-divided crops. This season it was brussels sprouts, edamame, garlic, onions & shallots, potatoes, and winter squash.
Food is nourishment, beauty, and life. Brussels sprouts harvest day yields a bucket of beautiful deliciousness for every gardener.
