Granny's Garden School

Food	Plant Part Eaten	How to Harvest
beans	fruit	Do not pull out the plant. Beans are harvested using two hands. Hold a pod between the thumb and forefinger of one hand and hold the stem where the pod is attached to the plant with the thumb and forefinger of your other hand. Pull to separate the pod from the stem. The plant will keep producing pods.
beets	root, leaves	Spring harvest: Harvest the root when it is 1.5 inches in diameter. Harvest by holding the root and not the leaves. Pinch off young leaves to eat as greens, leaving at least 3 on the plant. Fall season harvest: Harvest the root when it is 1.5 inches in diameter. Harvest by holding the root and not the leaves. Twist off the leaves and compost them. If you want to collect seeds, leave one beet in the garden. It will complete its biennial cycle next year with a flower and seeds.
broccoli	flower, stem, leaves	Harvest broccoli when the green buds are closed and clustered somewhat tightly together and the stems are about 5 inches long. The first harvest of broccoli will be a central head. Once the head is harvested, the plant will continue to produce side stems for harvesting. Harvest the central head by cutting and the side stems by cutting or breaking off with your fingers. Tender, young broccoli leaves can also be eaten as greens by pinching them off.
Brussels sprouts	leaves	Harvest Brussels sprouts when the heads are about an inch in diameter. The sprouts at the bottom of the stem will be ready first. Harvest by picking individual sprouts with your fingers. Remove the leaves that were growing by the sprouts you harvested. This Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons image is freely available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Brussels-sprouts-on-stalk.jpg under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
cabbage	leaves	Harvest anytime you see a firm head of cabbage by cutting the head away from the stem. Leave the plant in the ground for additional smaller heads to develop.
carrots	root	Spring harvest: Harvest when the root is about .5 inches in diameter or when the orange top starts to show. Harvest by holding the root and not the leaves. Fall season harvest: Harvest when the root is about .5 inches in diameter or when the orange top starts to show. Harvest by holding the root and not the leaves. If your carrots are thinner than ½-inch, allow them to keep growing for a final harvest later on. Twist off the leaves and compost them. If you want to collect seeds, leave one carrot. It will complete its biennial cycle next year with a flower and seeds.
chard	leaves, stem	Pinch off individual leaves. Do not pull out the plant since it will continue to produce leaves. Plus, chard is a biennial that will produce leaves, flower, and set seeds in its second growing season.
cucumber	fruit	Cucumbers can be harvested at any size. Cucumbers that are turning yellow have been on the vine too long. Harvest cucumbers using two hands, one to pick the fruit and the other to hold the place where the stem meets the vine. Keep picking cucumbers, and the plant will continue to produce more.
eggplant	fruit	Harvest traditional varieties of eggplant when they reach 6 to 8 inches long. Keep harvesting so the plant will keep producing. Harvest using clippers, scissors, or a sharp knife to avoid damaging the stem of the plant. Image courtesy of Carolyn Keeney, eggplant.jpg. 1-Aug. Pics4Learning. http://pics.tech4learning.com, 12-15-10.
kohlrabi	stem, leaves	Spring harvest: Harvest when the round stem is 1 to 3 inches in diameter. Harvest by holding the rounded stem and pulling out the entire plant. If the stem is too small, pinch off some of the young leaves, leaving at least 3 on the plant. Fall season harvest: Harvest when the round stem is 1 to 3 inches in diameter. Harvest by holding the rounded stem and pulling out the entire plant. If the stem is too small, pinch off some of the young leaves, leaving at least 3 on the plant.
leeks	stem, leaves	Leeks can be harvested anytime they look about an inch thick. Harvest by pulling the stem where it meets the soil. Generally, the white and pale green parts of the stem are eaten.
lettuce	leaves	Pinch off individual leaves. Do not pull out the plant since it will continue to produce leaves.
onions	stem, leaves	Spring harvest: Harvest spring onions when the tops are 6 inches tall. Harvest by pulling the stem where it meets the soil. Fall season harvest: Harvest when the tops are at least 6 inches tall. Harvest by pulling the stem where it meets the soil. If you have walking onions with the bulbs on top, save the bulbs for fall planting and leave one onion in the bed. If you have bunching onions, leave one in the bed. Walking onions and bunching onions will overwinter and grow early in spring.
peas, snow	fruit, leaves	Harvest as flat, tender pods before the peas develop inside. Do not pull out the plant. Hold a pea pod between the thumb and forefinger of one hand and hold the stem where the pea pod is attached to the plant with the thumb and forefinger of your other hand. Pull to separate the pod from the stem. The plant will keep producing pods. If peas have developed inside the pod before you harvest, open the pods to eat the tender peas inside. The tender, young shoots (the young top leaves and tips of the vines) and curling tendrils are also edible.
peppers, sweet bell	fruit	Harvest bell peppers when they are about 4 inches long. Green peppers are unripe, but still tasty. If you have planted a variety with a particular color, wait for the color to fully develop. Sweet peppers will sweeten as the true color develops. Harvest peppers by cutting from the plant with clippers, scissors, or a sharp knife. If you use your hands, use one to pick the fruit and the other to hold the place where the pepper stem meets the plant stem taking care not to damage the plant stem. Keep picking peppers, and the plant will continue to produce more. Picking at the unripe green stage yields more peppers.
potatoes	stem	Potatoes will need the summer to fully develop. Potatoes are not ready to harvest until the plant above ground has turned brown, and this happens in late summer. The main potato harvest happens in the first week of September. During the soup harvest, check the perimeter of your garden beds for remaining potatoes. Potatoes fewer than two inches in size should be replanted. These will be early growers next spring.
radish, spring	root, leaves, fruit	Harvest the root when it is about 1 inch in diameter. If the radish feels spongy, you waited too long and it has turned fibrous. The greens are also edible, as are the smaller underdeveloped roots and the plants you remove when thinning. We'll leave some radishes, especially the large, over-ripened ones, in the ground. They'll develop flowers and seed pods. Later, we'll harvest the tender seed pods for a quick sampling.
radish, winter	root, leaves	Spring harvest: Winter radishes like the Daikon variety are not harvested until the students return for the next school year. When harvested in fall, the root may be up to 18 inches long. Pinch off a few of the winter radish greens, leaving at least 3 on the plant. Fall season harvest: Harvest winter radishes in late summer to fall. Some varieties can grow up to 18 inches long. Harvest by holding the root and not the leaves. Twist off the leaves for composting. This Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons image is from the user Chris 73 and is freely available at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Daikon.Japan.jpg under the under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license, 11-17-10.
rutabaga	root, leaves	Harvest the root when it is about 3 inches in diameter. Harvest young, tender leaves leaving at least 3 on the plant. This Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons image is from the user Rainer Zenz and is freely available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Steckr%C3%BCbe.jpg, 11-17-10.
spinach	leaves	Harvest by pinching off individual leaves or cutting off the entire plant at the ground when the outer leaves are about 6 inches long.
squash, summer	fruit	Summer squash is best when harvested at 6 to 8 inches long. Harvest squash using two hands, one to pick the fruit and the other to hold the place where the stem meets the vine. Keep picking squash, and the plant will continue to produce more.
sweet potatoes	root	Harvest sweet potatoes by the first frost date in autumn. Follow the vines to the place they enter the soil and carefully unearth the sweet potatoes. Start your search about 2 feet from the place the vine enters the soil. A garden fork works nicely to remove soil.
tomatoes	fruit	Harvest the ripe fruits only, using two hands, one to hold the plant, the other to pick the fruit. Leave green tomatoes on the plant unless a killing frost is predicted.