Well, we know we’re getting pretty close to the end of the season when we process our Brussels sprouts. Though Brussies may be a bit divisive for some, they’re one of our favorite crops to grow. And boy, do we grow a lot of them!
It’s sometimes hard to believe that Brussels sprouts are part of the brassica family. They are just so very different from other brassicas, growing almost alien like tentacles that bear the edible sprouts. Once processed, you can see the similarity as they tend to look a lot like baby cabbages.
You might recall that we have to manipulate our sprouts to get a quality harvest in our northern world. We top the plants a month to first frost and also trim the lower leaves of the plant. This forces the plant into maturity and usually by mid-September, we’ve got full size sprouts. We prefer to harvest them late, too. As we discussed the other day, the cold temperatures cause the plant to convert starches to sugars, thereby sweetening our final product.
We, of course, reserve some of our crop for fresh eating. We also reserve some of our crop for sharing with others as fresh “on the stalk” Brussels sprouts are a real treat. But, the bulk of our harvests gets our standard blanch and freeze preservation technique. We divide them up into meal sized portions, allowing us to throw down healthy garden grown side dishes all winter long.
You’ll note that we divide up our Brussies by size. The reason for this is the blanching time changes based on small, medium and large sized sprouts. It’s important to get a thorough blanching as this is what arrests the enzymatic process. A partial blanching runs the risk of having the inner parts spoil prematurely, even when frozen.
This preservation is always a big one. It takes a minute to harvest all the sprouts. We find some sprouts will just snap off, but others require some convincing with a paring knife. You have to be a bit careful, too, as the awkwardness of the stalk and process makes sharps safety something worth thinking about.
When we harvest our Brussels, we often think about how many people have never seen an actual Brussels sprout plant. If you were to go by what you see at the store, you might think they grow on the ground like little cabbages. We’re grateful for our connection and knowledge about food, it’s one of the most important things we’ve learned in life.
We thoroughly enjoyed this preservation. We were visited by a family of three moose during the process, it was also set to the back drop of a light snowfall. We’re definitely getting chilly here, having a little outdoor fire was necessary as we regularly needed to warm up our hands. Our long days outdoors are coming to a close, though, soon we’ll be retreating to the warmth of the indoors!
