Post-Harvest Handling Decision Tool > Crop Groups > Broccoli, Cauliflower and Cabbage
For the brassica family of crops, rapid cooling and the maintenance of cold and humidity are the primary post-harvest concerns, normally addressed by package icing or hydrocooling. Because it is largely a manual process, handling speed is a function of personnel and equipment capacity.
Rapid cooling is not as much of a concern for cabbage.
For large, commercial operations, most broccoli and cauliflower is field packed directly into cartons. Mechanical cutters and banders are used to bundle the broccoli, which is packed immediately. Ice and liquid ice, combined with forced air cooling, are the primary methods for removing field heat and rapidly cooling to the desired temperature.
Most Midwest market farms do not bunch broccoli, although some do. It is more common on truck farms to produce larger heads of broccoli grown on a wider spacing than that used in large-scale commercial production. Broccoli is either hydrocooled or top-iced. Cauliflower is most often air-cooled, unless it has insect frass on it.
Hydrocooling
At Hog’s Back, Spring Hill, and Rock Spring Farm, broccoli is brought in from the field in totes or crates and hydrocooled in plastic or stainless steel bulk tanks. David Van Eeckhout notes that at Hog’s Back Farm, “We don’t dump the broccoli, we transfer it into the tanks.” David leaves the broccoli in the tank for a full fifteen minutes to remove the field heat.
Soaking broccoli has the additional advantage of dislodging cabbage worms if they are present.
Cauliflower is handled more gently. Most of the surveyed growers are not hydrocooling it, because cauliflower bruises more easily than broccoli. A plastic brush can be used with a water bath to remove frass, if necessary.
Cabbage does not get hydrocooled.
Top Icing
At Gardens of Eagan, broccoli is harvested into field totes and placed into a shaded field truck. The truck is backed up to the packing shed and the broccoli is moved directly into labeled boxes. The boxes are set open on a pallet, one layer at a time. Five pounds of ice is scooped into each box, and then the layer of boxes is closed and another placed on top. One worker can process about thirty-five-to-twenty-pound cases per hour in this process.
Bunching
At Featherstone Fruits and Vegetables, broccoli is harvested into totes and then poured into a bin in the field. The bins get hosed down to rinse and hydrocool when they come in from the field, then six inches of ice nuggets are spread over the top in an ice cap. The broccoli is left in the cooler overnight to chill through, then a crew of four people works to bunch the heads.
A crew of two people work to pull the broccoli out of the bins and put it in appropriately-sized bunches. Another worker manages the pneumatic broccoli buncher. A rubber band is placed on metal fingers that stretch the rubber band, then two to four stalks of broccoli are placed in the mechanism, and a switch is triggered causing the broccoli stems to be cut to a uniform length and the rubber band to be applied. A fourth worker packs the cases and applies the ice.
For bunching broccoli, Featherstone packs about twenty twenty-pound cases each hour with a crew of four people. Bunching broccoli provides some flexibility in harvest timing, since multiple small heads can be combined to meet demand prior to full maturity of the crop.
Cabbage
Cabbage was handled manually at all of the visited farms by trimming the stems with a sharp knife and peeling leaves. The speed of this operation is entirely dependent on the efficiency of the workers and the quality of the crop.
This information is part of a Post-harvest Handling Decision Tool developed by Chris Blanchard of Rock Spring Farm in Decorah, Iowa. The tool is a project of the Fruit and Vegetable Working Group affiliated with the Value Chain Partnerships program. This project was funded by the Iowa State University Extension Value Added Agriculture program and the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture. Blanchard conducted case studies of three vegetable operations to gather information for this decision tool. Products referred to in this tool are not an endorsement by Iowa State University.