Harvest is progressing this year with varying numbers of helpers depending on the availability of other members of the Eagle family. It has also been a week of classic British weather – sunshine and showers. I think that August on the whole is not a good month when compared with July, but then the year is creeping towards autumn. If anything the temperature this week has been more like autumn. But for all of that the Habego; hergo; Leikora; Frugana and Dorana are all ripening.
In terms of ripeness, Leikora are ripest. Having started picking on Wednesday, August 20th. next year I will pick these a little earlier. They have a thicker skin than Habego and require more of a pull to remove them. The other phenomenon of picking was the cries of despondency as the thorns on Leikora are more prolific, longer and positioned to ambush the un-wary. Having said that the reason for picking them was down to taste which we thought was definately good enough to fight off the pain.
As a comment, I do think that hand picking can be less painful if you pull the branch up with one hand and pick from under the branch, always pulling towards you. This seems to avoid the majority of the problems.
It is a concern that hired in pickers may object to being stabbed to often. Hand picking seems to be the cleanest and best way – time consuming but it needs the sensitivity that fingers provide. Gloves would have to be leather to fend off thorns and I question whether one can pick at a commercial rate with gloves.
In terms of picking rate, variety effects rate. Large berries; yield on the bush and ripeness I would suggest are the principle factors.
My Habego is being really frustrating. They are the largest shrubs and the yield is heavy, although I would say that this is similar to Askola. The problem this year has been that several ( but not all) of the shrubs are ripe in the middle and lower branches and partially ripe in the upper branches. So this week these bushes have been half picked and the tops will be repicked as they come ripe. In terms of yield, the best Habego will have yeilded over 10kg as the middle/lower pick came to 9kg. The berries are large on most bushes which makes huge difference to hand picking.
Yesterday I picked the ripe berries out of the yellow clumps on the upper branches of the habego. The process is slow, but it has freed off the thick clumps of on these higher Habego branches. I am hoping that this will speed up the picking process when/if these yellow berries ripen.
By comparison the Leikora berries are even larger still than the habego making picking easier. Ripeness alters daily and the degree of firmness changes the ease of picking.
The current concentration is on clearing the habego but that will be followed by Hergo. It is unfortunate that these are a smaller berry, although the flavour is good. With thorns also being an issue, I am not looking forward to hand picking these Hergo plants. I am going to cut some of the branches and freeze them. They need a prune and it will speed up the process.
In terms of actual picking rate I have struggled to pick more than 3kg per hour by hand. The habego bushes that I have picked with the part ripe top branches i have found that the rate slips below 3kg. This puts a price on the berries. With the politicians talking about moving the minimum wage to an economic living wage of £7.60/hour this puts home grown berries at a premium.
A truely thornless variety would speed up the process. So my ultimate choice of variety has to look for a big berry that has a good flavour – that need not be sweet, but from a plant that yields more than 10kg and is thornless.
Then of course one should start to look at nutritional content – but that is another topic.
