From the Homestead: Harvesting your garden
Picking at the Peak - Harvesting your garden
I think the lettuce is about ready to be harvested, so I looked up on one of my favorite sites exactly how to harvest it, and I came up with a page that lists when to harvest many different veggies on Picking at the Peak.
Some of what we have in our garden:
Lettuce
Hot weather is a lettuce crop's worst enemy, because it causes bolting (the formation of seed heads) and bitter- tasting leaves. Luckily, you can often harvest tasty leaves from both head and leaf lettuce plants right up to bolting, Cashel says.
When buying lettuce at farmers' markets, look for vendors who display their lettuce on ice or in coolers, Cashel advises. And don't be afraid to ask if the vendors grew their own crops.
Harvest lettuce in the morning to preserve the crispness it acquires overnight.
Immerse lettuce immediately into cold water after cutting; then rinse and refrigerate.
Cut leaf lettuce when outer leaves are 4 to 6 inches long; cut head lettuce when heads are moderately firm.
Eggplant
Ripe eggplants drain the plant's resources. So know what you grow and harvest eggplants when they reach the proper size for their variety.
Select glossy eggplants that spring back when pressed. Overripe fruits don't spring back, have brown seeds, and taste bitter.
Use shears to remove eggplants from the vine, says Willie Chance, University of Georgia extension agent.
Onions
Do you crave homegrown produce in the winter? Then grow onions—they store for months when properly handled. Dr. Harrison says you should wait until the tops fall over to harvest, then gently dig up the whole plant and dry in a protected place.
Leave the dry, papery outer skin on the onion; removal of that skin almost doubles the onion's rate of decay.
Cut the onion tops off 1 inch above the bulb no sooner than four hours after harvest.
Cure bruise-free onions for up to a month in a well-ventilated, dry, shady spot.
Store onions in mesh rather than plastic bags.
We have found many leaves that have been eaten, and I am pretty sure it is Japanese Beetles, but I just found something else that may be the culprit: SLUGS!
"Every gardener with a moist, shady area knows slugs are pigs. With their rough, file-like tongues, these mollusks devour several times their own body weight in one night, leaving gaping holes in leaves, torn foliage, and-yuck!-slime trails in their wake. Hostas and lettuce are their most common targets, but corn, beans, strawberries, annual flowers, and many other garden favorites are susceptible to attacks. In our test gardens, we've battled the slimers and tried a many different strategies for controlling them. The following tactics work best for us."
Read the rest here.
Blessings! -Jacque
Leave a Comment
Untitled Comment
7:49 PM, Wednesday, July 4, 2007
.. Posted by quietcajun
I am so glad you posted this. While our growing season is apparently later here in the Pacific NW... therefore, my veggies are mostly not ready yet (although the chives are and we did get a nice big potato today!) I have been wondering about how to harvest and we do have an eggplant so that was very useful to know. I am looking forward to making eggplant parmesan! YUMMY
By the way, I left a personal message for you. Read it when you can please. :)
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