Composting Brassica Stalks

The first weeks of January seemed a quiet on the community composting site as the waste food from the Christmas events was composted during December and the site was a little on the damp. However, we have now started to receive brassica stalks as the finished spouts are being pulled up and brought to the reception bin for composting. Normally I would cut these into short lengths using the long loppers and then smash them using a hammer, but I was caught on the hop today without the hammer so am composting them in short lengths without crushing.
If untreated the stalks are just chucked into the bin, as is often the case on allotments, they can take in the region ofthreeyears  to breakdown in the compost bin. Cut into small lengths and crushed to expose the maximum surface area to the compost microbes the process is much quicker. Cutting and crushing is well worth the effort.
The photos show the stalks  cut stalks.