5th September

As I was saying last week we were going to start harvesting the brussels, and yes we started and on Monday morning it was minus 5 in the field, Pretty cold for tackling the brussel sprouts.
The first thing we need to do before cutting the sprout stalks, is to strip of the leaves around the plant just leaving the head, which can be used like a cabbage.
The Leaves are cupped shaped and hold the water so as soon as we start to break of the bottom leaves our hands get soaking, or on monday morning covered in ice.
We had one hundred and fifty to do so it was a case of putting our hand round the auld fergie's exhaust every now and again to get the hands re heated.
The funny thing was on Monday it was minus, 5 Tuesday minus 3, and Wednesday was a roasting hot plus 1 but that was the worst day of the lot for our hands freezing up, but the cupped leaves that day didn't hold ice but water.
The braw cold mornings are great to be out working in, when the sun first come up in a cold frosty morning the veg across the field looks great with all the colours as you can see from the web page photo.
Its only the hands that ever get cold in the morning, but when they have had half a dozen freeze then thaw they then seem to be ok and stay warm for the rest of the day.