Harvesting Tool for Seabuckthorn:
These 2 videos from Matti Lindqvist. He has a great idea for the home garden Seabuckthorn grower. The tool is handmade and looks fairly easy to do. Matti is from Finland and describes it like this:Video #1- I manufactured this device about 15 years ago for sea buckthorn harvesting in the home garden. I have many bushes with small berries and lots of spikes. I think the device is good especially in small berries picking for home use and the undamaged berries are nice and clean to freeze. In autumn, I often picked up to 220 lbs (100 kg).
Video #2 - Matti continues....This is my home made seabuckthorn berry picker. I have put some instructions on how I made it at the end of the video In this video, I pick small berries from very thorny bush which I cannot ordinarily use my fingers. If I were to use my fingers, many berries would break and I would just end up with yellow fingers from the broken berries. The berries are ready to pick when the very small scale at the top of the berries fly away, the skin gets thin and it is good to have a picker like this. I like sea-buckthorn juice with stevia sweetener because it gives it a little vanilla taste and I believe it is healthier than sugar.
I have taken some liberty with the Finnish translation. If Matti sees this, I hope he doesn't mind.
That is a brilliantly made tool. I want to try making one, it looks very straight-forward.
ReplyDeleteThis tool seems WAY to slow to be practical. We at Vermont Seaberry Company developed a simple bag strapped to each wrist with rubber bands, that received berries picked by two free hands. Much faster. We also prune the thorns in the winter, and prior to picking to make it go faster. We find that women make better pickers, or men with small hands.
ReplyDeleteThanks Mesissa for the tips. Especially the pruning of thorns in the winter. If you could send me a photo of the bag, I'll update and post it here. I am sure there are lots of people who would appreciate it. BTW, if you want to profile your company here, with a guest post, that would be great. I am excited to see your Vermont Seaberry Company get going and would like to help in any way to make it known as far and wide as possible. -- Tom
ReplyDeleteBut for a home garden grower like me this little machine would be very helpful. I got my first seaberry tree fruiting this year. Bought some from Tom, some from other nurseries.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, here is another handy man with his seaberry device: https://youtu.be/cXy3w27_Zz8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oioG8Ss2jE0
ReplyDelete