Crops
Maturity and shade at harvest set the price
Soft cabbage, skinned onion, and warm roots in the sun lose grade after the field work is done. Pick for the buyer, then keep it cool.
Maturity and shade at harvest set the price
A winter vegetable is sold as a grade, not as a field weight. Harvest cabbage when heads are firm, onion when skins have set, carrot and beetroot at the diameter the channel wants, potato when skins hold. Early softness and late pith both miss the spec.
Work in the cool part of the day. Keep produce off hot soil, in shade, with gentle stacking. Leave a couple of wrapper leaves on cabbage. Do not wash soil into wounds. Record what sold and what was rejected so the next planting date and size target can move.
If the field looked full and the crate was half reject, the last hundred metres of handling are the crop.
In this series
- Choose the buyer before you choose the crop
- Secure water before the winter bed is sown
- Rotation is disease control, not a pretty calendar
- Uneven water cracks cabbage and forks carrots
- Weed and scout while the plants are still small
- Maturity and shade at harvest set the price