Sandy Shore Farms is proud to announce our most recent development: The Mantis.

For years, asparagus has been cut by hand with workers walking down a field and bending over to cut the asparagus spears individually. This form of harvesting asparagus can be very gruelling as workers must walk in the hot summer heat and have to carry a heavy basket to throw the asparagus spears in. On many other farms, such as ours, asparagus has been harvested using 4 or 5-man machines with seats for workers to sit and cut the asparagus as they travel through the rows. This form is more efficient and comfortable as the workers can place the asparagus spears in a lug placed on the harvest aid, and they have a tarp covering them so to block out the sun or rain. The problem with 3 or 5-man harvesters, however, lies in the simple fact that you can only go as fast as your slowest person. This means that although there may be 5 workers on a machine, if someone is working slower than the others the entire machine is forced to slow down with them. The solution? The Mantis. 

The Mantis is a one-man machine used to harvest asparagus without the pain of walking, and without the inefficiency of relying on the pace of others. Not only this, but these machines will save on labour, fuel, crop damage, equipment modification, and get the crop to the coolers faster. The Mantis aids in harvesting asparagus 2.5x faster than our traditional methods, and we trust we will continue to see even more benefits from it. Contact us for more information and stay tuned for a website coming soon!