By Pat Stone
It's surprising how fast homegrown crops can go from being too young to too old. How can you tell when they're just right? Depends on the vegetable:
Green Beans: Beans are most tender when their seeds are one-quarter normal size.
Broccoli: Cut when the heads are big but still tight. Small side shoots will develop for weeks afterwards.
Cabbage: Heads are full but haven't started to split. (To delay splitting, pull on the head until some upper roots snap.)
Cauliflower: To keep them white, tie outer leaves above the heads when they start to get big. Harvest a week or two later.
Corn: The silks are brown, and the ears feel full. To make sure, peel back the top and poke a kernel. If "milk" comes out, it's ready.
Cucumber: Get them just before they mature, when the spines are still soft and the seeds half-sized.
Eggplant: Bright, shiny, and full-grown? Prime. Dull color and brown seeds? Missed it.
Leaf Crops (Swiss chard, collards, kale, leaf lettuce, spinach): These are cut-and-come-again crops. Harvest some leaves continuously, and they'll keep producing as long as weather permits.
Okra: What you want are two- to three-inch-long pods that are easy to snap. Tough and woody is not.
Shell Peas: The pods are filled out but still light-green, not yellow.
Snow Peas: The pods are full-sized but not filled out.
Hot Peppers: Anytime--younger peppers are hotter. (At the end of the season, pull the entire plant and hang it upside down in a dry place.)
Sweet Peppers: Fruits are firm and full. (If you want to wait, they'll turn red!)
Potatoes: The tops have died down and the ground is dry.
Summer Squash: Young and tender. Check daily!
Winter Squash: A fingernail can barely scratch them? Harvest time.
Tomatoes: Fully colored but haven't turned soft = ripe.
You may find that the hardest thing is keeping up with the yields. But, hey, that's a good problem to have!
Picking Vegetables
