Gardening Hand Tools for Harvest

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Grape crusher design.
Grape crusher design.
2 / 8
Grape crusher.
Grape crusher.
3 / 8
Bean sheller design.
Bean sheller design.
4 / 8
Bean slicer.
Bean slicer.
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Bean slicer design.
Bean slicer design.
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Bean sheller.
Bean sheller.
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Corn cutter.
Corn cutter.
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Corn cutter design.
Corn cutter design.

Beginning just about this time of year, many MOTHER EARTH NEWS staffers and readers start giving thought to a common concern: what to do with the garden’s bounty. Now, harvesting the fruits (and vegetables) of summer’s labor isn’t the problem … but actually preparing those abundant yields for the larder can be taxing to even the most diligent home gardener.

With this task in mind, a couple of people were more than a little pleased when they discovered that Mr. Hollen Orr, an Ecovillage neighbor and a man of the land in his own right, had regularly been using–and was willing to share the designs for–a number of soft-tech gardening hand tools that just about anybody could put together.

For the most part, each of the four implements involves uncomplicated wood construction techniques, and none requires fancy tools. Also be aware that we spruced up Mr. Orr’s utilitarian originals to make them a bit more pleasing to the eye, but this “beautification” doesn’t necessarily make the gardening hand tools work any better. If you want to use nails instead of screws in places, go right ahead (and an application of carpenter’s glue would increase the strength of the wood joints).

So if beans, corn, or grapes are on your home garden hit parade, you’ll certainly be able to find a use for Hollen’s helpers at harvest time (unless, of course, you enjoy preparing your reapings the old-fashioned way).

Grape Crusher  

  • Published on Jul 1, 1984
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