Mornings are dark at the moment, the sky is also perpetually overcast, a weak sun peeks through if we're lucky. We started the morning picking off the dead leaves and sprouts that had gone bad on one side of the brussel sprouts trials bed, well clad in vinyl gloves, waterproofs etc, as the plants holds water well. Team member Ryan overlooks this trials.
Some of the plants are passing over because there are early and late season types growing together, but we wondered if the ventilation was good enough here being at the bottom of a south facing hill. The stench of rotten brassica is pretty bad and lingers on our clothes. We also harvested the best of the bunch (size of a walnut when it's ready for harvesting) for the restaurant. The ones that were being assessed were 5 in the middle, right of the label, they were not cleaned or picked. But part of maintaining them is picking them regularly throughout the harvesting season.
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| Photo 1: One side of the brussel sprouts trial bed cleaned up. Clever self-supporting pointed chestnut posts and big squared netting. |
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| Photo 2: Blackberry 'Helen' - one of the few that looks beautiful ornamentally, fruit did not seem to last so well though. |