Harvest for Maximum Flavor and Productivity

Enjoy the biggest harvest, best flavor and most nutritional value from your garden vegetables with proper harvesting.

Harvest tomatoes when they are fully colored. Leave them on the plant for an extra five to eight warm days for even better flavor. You can harvest as soon as they start to show color and finish ripening them indoors if needed to beat a killing frost or hungry animals.

Pick snap beans when the pods are full size, but before the seeds begin to bulge for the best flavor.

Thin onion plantings and use as green onions.  Harvest the remaining onions when the leaves topple and begin to dry.

Cut the outer leaves of leaf lettuce when they are four to six inches tall for the best flavor and greater productivity.

Once your family experiences home grown flavor, it will be easier to get them to clean their plates.

A bit more information:  Harvest pumpkins when the fruit is full size, the rind is firm and the spot touching the ground turns from cream to orange. Pick watermelons when they are full size, dull colored and the tendrils nearest the fruit are curled and dry.

Tags

lettuce harvest vegetables-herbs-fruits tomatoes pumpkin pole-beans bush-beans onions watermelon

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