When, how and what is harvested?

Harvest the mustard leaves

Mustard leaves can be harvested practically all year round, just a few weeks after the sowing. It makes sense to only remove the outer leaves so that the mustard plant can continue to grow and thus continue to supply you with delicious leafy greens. The leaves can be used in salads but also in soups or other warm dishes. They give the food a light mustard aroma.
If the mustard begins to bloom, the leaf harvest must be stopped, because it costs the mustard to form flowers Mustard plant has a lot of power and nutrients that it extracts from the leaves, so that these nutritional value and aroma lose. After flowering, the leaves begin to die and seed formation begins.
Do you want the mustard leaves as Green manure you can harvest them during or shortly after flowering as well as during the entire growth phase.

Harvest mustard seeds

The pea-sized mustard seeds grow in pods and are usually ready for harvest in September / October. When the pods are ripe, they are dry and light yellow. To make sure the seeds are ripe, shake one of the pods: does it rattle? Then it's harvest time!

When harvesting, proceed as follows:

• Cut the stems with the pods.
• Put them in one Burlap sack(€ 14.29 at Amazon *) or a sack made from another, more resistant material.
• Hit the sack on a stone or against a wall so that the pods pop open.
• Collect the seeds from the sack and transfer them to a plate or other flat container.
• Repeat the process until all pods have popped open or open pods that are still closed by hand.
• Leave the mustard seeds in a dry place for four weeks. B. on the heater) on newspaper or something similar to make sure that all residual moisture escapes.
• Process the seeds directly or put them in a closed jar and store in a cool, dark place.

Process mustard seeds

Mustard seeds can not only be ground and processed into mustard. They can also be used as a spice for dishes, such as B .:

• mustard pickle
• Roulades
• curry
• Pickled Pumpkin
• cucumber salad
• Meat dishes