How Do I Know When It's Ripe?

One of the most frequently asked questions I get is, "How do I know when [name of vegetable] is ripe/can be picked/ready?"  That's a bit of a tricky answer because it depends on the fruit, vegetable or herb involved.  Below I list the most common home garden vegetables and fruits and how you can tell when each one is ripe. Happy gardening!


Harvest Guide: General Tips

•    Keep your seed packages. Note the time indicated on the back of the package for days until ready. Most will tell you the number of days to wait before harvesting. It's roughly accurate. Count the time from when you first plant the seeds.  Give or take a week or two and you can probably harvest the crops.

•    Look at the vegetables: For most aboveground vegetables such as tomatoes or peppers, a quick glance tells you if it's ready or not.

•    Pull one up: Many root vegetables give no outward signs of readiness, so be prepared to sacrifice a few to test for ripeness.

•    Always harvest greens such as lettuce and spinach before they bolt. Bolting means the plant produces seeds. You'll know if your greens are bolting if you see a big spike appear in the center, sometimes with flowers on it. That's the plant's way of saying, "I’m mature enough for reproduction!"  Once the plant produces flowers and seeds, the green leaves are usually too bitter to eat (although you can try.)


Harvesting Guide: Common Vegetables

•    Beans (snap, green or wax): Pull them or snip them off the plants when the beans pods are a few inches long but before the inner seeds are pronounced and hard. If they start turning brown, they've been on the plant too long. You can try to eat them but they may not taste very good.

•    Beets: Keep watch on how long it's been since you planted beets. They give no telltale sign above ground that they're ready, so pull one out. Harvest beets while they're between the size of a ping pong ball and a tennis ball. Anything larger will taste bland or have an unpleasant woody texture. It's better to pull them out a little too soon than too late. They'll taste better.

•    Carrots: Dig a little into the soil and check out the diameter of the carrot. You may have to pull one or two out of the soil completely to see how long they are, keeping in mind that some varieties such as the "Nantes" type of carrots do not develop as long as the supermarket carrots you may be used to. Wash one and take a bit; if it's sweet and about the right size according to the variety you planted, you can harvest them.

•    Lettuce: Just snip off the leaves and use them in salads as soon as you want. You can leave the plant in the ground and take what you want. It won't hurt it! Same goes for other green, leafy vegetables such as spinach, kale and chard.

•    Melons:  Melons, including cantaloupe and watermelon, are often the toughest fruits to judge for ripeness. If you pick them too soon they won't ripen on the counter. Look carefully at the melon at the spot where the stem attaches to the melon. There are several small vine tendrils at this point. When they turn brown and start to curl, that's a good sign the melon is ready. Watermelons develop a yellow spot where they touch the ground, another sign of ripeness. Thump the melon; smell it.  If it detaches easily from the vine, that's another sign it is ready for harvest. Too ripe melons and some unripe ones may be juiced.

•    Peppers: Green bell peppers reach the size of about a tennis ball or larger, depending on the variety. Start picking them as soon as you like.  If you leave green peppers on the plant too long, they may start turning red. That's not a sign of disease or illness, just a natural color change. You can still eat and enjoy the peppers. If the peppers develops any mold spots, discard it.

•    Tomatoes: Wait until your tomatoes are vine ripened red. But pick them before they get squishy!


I hope that this short guide to harvesting helps.  Remember, if you have any questions, drop me a note and mention Raw People.



About the Author
Jeanne Grunert is a writer and marketing consultant who moved from New York City to a 17 acre organic farm in rural Virginia. She writes about gardening, health and raw foods for many publications, and her gardening book, Get Your Hands Dirty – A Beginner's Guide to Gardening is available in paperback and as an E book on Amazon.com or Lulu.com, the publisher's website. Her new book, Diet from the Garden, will be available this summer and focuses on how to change to a fresh, living foods diet. For more about Jeanne, her books and writing, please visit www.sevenoaksconsulting.com

------------------
These statements have not been evaluated by the food and drug administration.  The preceding information and/or products are for educational purposes only and are not meant to diagnose, prescribe, or treat illness. Please consult your doctor before making any changes or before starting ANY exercise or nutritional supplement program or before using this information or any product during pregnancy or if you have a serious medical condition.


Written by:  Jeanne Grunert
Copyright 2010 RawPeople.com All rights reserved