Beyond the Video: Cauliflower Whisperers

Every time we make an episode, there are always bits of information that, though we love them (and mourn them!), get left on the cutting room floor.

The HowGrow crew with a bona fide "cauliflower whisperer" at Lakeside Organic Gardens in California.

Usually, it's a matter of timing and pace — we try to make our videos snappy, fun and under five minutes — and sometimes an extra fact or three can end up weighing an episode down.

We shared some of these juicy tidbits with Food & Wine. One of our favorites is that there are "cauliflower whisperers" among us. OK, so that's what we call them. In effect, these are super-experienced harvesters who can use their ears instead of their eyes to pick the cauliflower. 

As you saw in our video, each harvester has a knife, and as he walks the field he reaches down, cuts each head and trims off the leaves. Because the cauliflower has had its leaves tied over its head, the harvester has to bend down and rifle around in those leaves to be sure the head is harvest sized. It's annoying and time consuming.

But not for the cauliflower whisperers.

The most experienced harvesters, can just tap the blade of their knife against the wrapped head, and determine the size of the cauliflower by the sound. 

Tap, tap. Cut. Tap, tap. Cut.

You can read more fun facts that didn't make it into the video by clicking here to our Food & Wine article.

Also, in a piece written for Food Tank, we dive deeper into the matter of color and why the heck we expect cauliflower to be white anyway!

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