
When the Time Is Ripe: Harvesting Vegetables for Best Flavor

If a morning harvest is impossible to fit into your schedule or lifestyle, pick in the evening after the heat of the late afternoon sun has begun to wane. Other fruiting vegetables, such as tomatoes, peppers and zucchini are less sensitive to wilting, so they can be picked later in the day. So can root vegetables like carrots, but make sure to get them out of the sun and into the refrigerator quickly, particularly if the weather is warm.
Testing for ripeness involves all the senses: from tapping and smelling melons to puncturing corn kernels and recognizing the perfect plumpness of a pea! After enough practice and plenty of tasting, you’ll find that your hands learn to find beans of the perfect thickness on their own. Harvesting Tips![]() |
![]() To purchase other Renee's Garden Seeds, click here Try great harvest recipes from ![]() |








"Winter" Greens:

Radicchio: Cut the inner heads of radicchio in late fall before a hard frost when they are firm, round and colored deep red and white. If you pick them too early when leaves are still red and green, they will taste quite bitter.


Leeks: Harvest tender baby leeks when they are about 1/2-1” thick or continue to let them thicken. Make sure to pick them before they begin to send up a flowering stalk, or else they’ll be much too tough to eat. Keep leeks well weeded, watered and fertilized, and hill up the soil around the base for a longer, blanched white shaft, which is more delicate than the tougher green upper leaves.


Cantaloupes: Pick when they heavy and tan-colored with a slight yellowish cast. When ripe, a cantaloupe’s netting becomes harder and raised, and a crack forms around the stem where it touches the fruit. The melons should slip easily off the vines with a quick pull, but should not have already fallen off. The fruits get slightly softer at the bottom end and they smell fragrant.
Honeydews should have a slight yellow blush on their ivory rinds when ready. They also get slightly softer at the blossom end. Unlike muskmelons, honeydews do not slip off at the stem so must be cut from the vines.
Galia melons turn from green to a golden color on the surface of the fruits and smell fragrant.
Watermelons develop a dull green cast and have a light patch at the bottom that changes from green to light yellow when mature. Also, the leaf on the tendril nearest the fruit turns brown and withers. The skin should be hard – difficult to pierce with a fingernail. Some people say they can knock on a melon to detect a perfect hollow tone.

Peas
Pick peas in the morning at least every other day for maximum harvest and crispest texture.
Shelling Peas: Pick them when the pods are rounded and the peas have filled the pod – but before they grow too large and tough.
Snap Peas: Wait until the flat edible pods begin to grow rounded, plump and juicy – but before the peas inside get too big and tough. You’ll notice that the pods will not taste sugary enough if the pods are picked too early and flat.
Snow Peas: Pick them when the pods have grown to size but are still quite flat.


Pumpkins and Squash
Pumpkins: Harvest pumpkins when the fruits are deep orange and the shells are so hard that they can’t be pierced with a fingernail. Cut a 2-3” stem handle, let cure for 10 days in the sun or a warm, dry room (do not expose to frost) and store in a cool, dry place at around 50 degrees.
Summer Squash: Smaller is better when it comes to summer squash. The longer the fruits remain on the vine, the tougher on the outside, seedier and more watery they become on the inside. Even the most ardent zucchini bread bakers will probably not want to grate and freeze too many baseball-bat sized fruits! So pick zucchini no larger than 6 or 7". Pick patty pan squash at 2-3”, round zucchini at 3-4", and longer trombetta squash at 12-14".
Winter Squash: Pick winter squash when rind is deeply colored and the shells have become so hard that you can’t pierce them with your fingernail. Cut a 2-3” stem handle, let cure for 10 days in the sun or a very warm room (do not expose to frost) and store in a cool dry place at around 50 degrees. Some varieties which store less well such as acorn squash should be consumed in the fall; the flavor and texture of many other varieties such as Kabocha and Butternut improves in storage.


If a morning harvest is impossible to fit into your schedule or lifestyle, pick in the evening after the heat of the late afternoon sun has begun to wane. Other fruiting vegetables, such as tomatoes, peppers and zucchini are less sensitive to wilting, so they can be picked later in the day. So can root vegetables like carrots, but make sure to get them out of the sun and into the refrigerator quickly, particularly if the weather is warm.
Testing for ripeness involves all the senses: from tapping and smelling melons to puncturing corn kernels and recognizing the perfect plumpness of a pea! After enough practice and plenty of tasting, you’ll find that your hands learn to find beans of the perfect thickness on their own. Harvesting Tips![]() |
![]() To purchase other Renee's Garden Seeds, click here Try great harvest recipes from ![]() |








"Winter" Greens:

Radicchio: Cut the inner heads of radicchio in late fall before a hard frost when they are firm, round and colored deep red and white. If you pick them too early when leaves are still red and green, they will taste quite bitter.


Leeks: Harvest tender baby leeks when they are about 1/2-1” thick or continue to let them thicken. Make sure to pick them before they begin to send up a flowering stalk, or else they’ll be much too tough to eat. Keep leeks well weeded, watered and fertilized, and hill up the soil around the base for a longer, blanched white shaft, which is more delicate than the tougher green upper leaves.


Cantaloupes: Pick when they heavy and tan-colored with a slight yellowish cast. When ripe, a cantaloupe’s netting becomes harder and raised, and a crack forms around the stem where it touches the fruit. The melons should slip easily off the vines with a quick pull, but should not have already fallen off. The fruits get slightly softer at the bottom end and they smell fragrant.
Honeydews should have a slight yellow blush on their ivory rinds when ready. They also get slightly softer at the blossom end. Unlike muskmelons, honeydews do not slip off at the stem so must be cut from the vines.
Galia melons turn from green to a golden color on the surface of the fruits and smell fragrant.
Watermelons develop a dull green cast and have a light patch at the bottom that changes from green to light yellow when mature. Also, the leaf on the tendril nearest the fruit turns brown and withers. The skin should be hard – difficult to pierce with a fingernail. Some people say they can knock on a melon to detect a perfect hollow tone.

Peas
Pick peas in the morning at least every other day for maximum harvest and crispest texture.
Shelling Peas: Pick them when the pods are rounded and the peas have filled the pod – but before they grow too large and tough.
Snap Peas: Wait until the flat edible pods begin to grow rounded, plump and juicy – but before the peas inside get too big and tough. You’ll notice that the pods will not taste sugary enough if the pods are picked too early and flat.
Snow Peas: Pick them when the pods have grown to size but are still quite flat.


Pumpkins and Squash
Pumpkins: Harvest pumpkins when the fruits are deep orange and the shells are so hard that they can’t be pierced with a fingernail. Cut a 2-3” stem handle, let cure for 10 days in the sun or a warm, dry room (do not expose to frost) and store in a cool, dry place at around 50 degrees.
Summer Squash: Smaller is better when it comes to summer squash. The longer the fruits remain on the vine, the tougher on the outside, seedier and more watery they become on the inside. Even the most ardent zucchini bread bakers will probably not want to grate and freeze too many baseball-bat sized fruits! So pick zucchini no larger than 6 or 7". Pick patty pan squash at 2-3”, round zucchini at 3-4", and longer trombetta squash at 12-14".
Winter Squash: Pick winter squash when rind is deeply colored and the shells have become so hard that you can’t pierce them with your fingernail. Cut a 2-3” stem handle, let cure for 10 days in the sun or a very warm room (do not expose to frost) and store in a cool dry place at around 50 degrees. Some varieties which store less well such as acorn squash should be consumed in the fall; the flavor and texture of many other varieties such as Kabocha and Butternut improves in storage.

