Crisp salads, healthy snacks and delectable recipes await you once your garden has offered up an abundance of your very own fresh produce. However, the question may still remain in some gardeners’ minds; when to pick what veggies? Well, there are all sorts of rules that vary between varieties, but there are some general guidelines.

Mike Lopes, a manager with Sunnyside Greenhouses Ltd. knows more than a bit about vegetable gardens. Not only does he work in one of the bigger garden centres in Calgary, but Mike also has a garden of his own as well. One of the more popular veggies to grow isn’t even a vegetable; it’s a fruit. The tomato comes in many varieties and often provides a plentiful crop of these juicy red globes. Mike says that the best time to pick tomatoes is just when they start to turn red. (Some of you may remember your parents setting slightly reddening tomatoes out on the kitchen sill to finish ripening; this is sometimes necessary if you have an over-abundance of tomatoes and don’t want them to rot on the vine or be gobbled up by pests.) Some varieties are ready earlier than others, but generally tomatoes start ripening on the vine sometime in July if the season is good. “I have little Tumbler tomatoes,” says Mike. “And there were tonnes of ripe ones on mine going into the third week in July.” If you are growing leaf-lettuce or bread and butter lettuce, you can start picking enough for your dinner salads as soon as it’s big enough. The quicker you pick it, the less you have to share with any garden pests. However, Mike says that if you are growing head lettuce or cabbages then you have to make sure that you harvest them before they go to flower. Again the timing will vary according to the kind of season we are experiencing. A good habit for every gardener is to make frequent visits to your garden to keep track of what is unfolding within.

Another popular garden item is the pepper. Mike says that with these, the general rule is the redder the hotter. Of course there are different varieties of sweet peppers as well, but when you purchase any seeds or starter plant, there are instructions that give the approximate time to maturity, so it’s a good idea to keep track of these for future reference. Mike says that runner beans and peas are similar in that you don’t want them to be too old when you pick them. With Runner Beans you give them a gentle squeeze and if they are soft then they are ready to be harvested. (You don’t want to wait until the pods are too tough or start to look shriveled.) Mike says that peas are much the same as beans. “You want to pick peas when the pod is well filled,” he says. “However you want a little air space between each pea and you don’t want to pick them when they’re too hard.” Some other vegetables and gourds that grow on vines, like cucumbers, zucchinis or pumpkins are harvested later in the season. These items must be allowed to mature on the plant and need to be removed before the first frost. Normally Calgary’s first frost can be as early as the first week in September, so be sure to rescue your prizes before then. (Of course this is Calgary so surprises can happen) Mike says that these varieties are ready to be harvested when anything lying on the ground turns a yellowish colour on the side touching the ground.

Of course there are all the underground varieties such as tubers and roots. This includes potatoes, onions, turnips, radishes and of course carrots. With potatoes, once the foliage turns brown and withered, wait ten days then lift the tubers and let them dry for a few hours before storage. (You don’t want all your hard work to get moldy) With onions Mike says that the tops will start to die back and the leaves will turn yellow and topple over. He says that you should then leave them for about two weeks and then lift them out with a fork. He says the same goes for chives. Of course the greens of chives can also be snipped occasionally with a pair of scissors to add flavour to those dinner salads if you just can’t wait to enjoy them. Mike says that turnips should be pulled when they reach about golf or tennis-ball size and that just like radishes, the older they are – the worse they taste! However, with radishes, he says that most varieties only take 30 to 40 days to mature. Another popular edible root is the carrot. These tasty treats sometimes don’t make it to the kitchen if there’s a handy garden hose around. For the best flavour, most seed packages suggest that carrots be harvested when the roots are not more that five centimetre  in diametre. Last but not least, some people like to plant corn. If you are in this group, corn is ready when the tassle (the silky top) of the plant begins to dry and wither. Again the timing can vary depending on the growing season, but it’s a good bet that you can be enjoying delicious corn on the cob sooner that you think. Of course there are many more types of garden vegetables that may grow in your garden, and if you aren’t sure about when they are ready to be harvested you can always give your local greenhouse a call.

SAVE IT FOR LATER
Unless you have a very small garden, or a very large family, you will probably want to store some of your produce to enjoy at a later date. If you plan on freezing any of your crop, you will want to make sure that it is kept cold until you are ready to do so. It is usually best if you can prepare them right away. However, it’s not just a matter of throwing your veggies in a bag and tossing them into the freezer. All fruits and vegetables contain enzymes and bacteria that will eventually cause your food to change in flavour, colour and texture during freezing. As well it’s possible that they could make you sick. In order to prevent this from happening food needs to be heated quickly and for a short period of time to kill the bacteria and stop the action of the enzymes. This process is called blanching. Once this short process is completed, the food is then returned to ice water to ensure that it is not over-cooked. Of course different times are necessary for different foods, but there are tonnes of books on freezing and canning available in stores or at your library. Once your vegetables have been blanched, then you can slip them into Ziploc freezer bags or other similar food-storage bags. You need to remove all the air so as to prevent freezer-burn, but then you can write the packaging date on the label and pop it into the freezer. If you have an actual deep freezer it is better to use it than to use your refrigerator’s freezer as the faster your food freezes the better. It will keep longer and taste better. Advice on how long your frozen produce will keep varies from source to source, but as a general guide your veggies will retain the best flavour if stored in the deep freeze and used within a year. There are other storage options such as canning, creating preserves or even dehydrating, but the choice is yours. After all it’s you reaping the rewards of a well-tended garden.  NL