Garden Tips: Harvest vegetables at the right time

Vegetable gardening is a lot of work, but it is worth it to be able to pick fresh nutritious produce from the garden.

However, not everyone knows when or how to harvest vegetables at the peak of perfection. Since many warm-season vegetables are becoming ripe, let’s talk about harvesting and care of just-picked veggies.

▪ Summer squash: Zucchini and yellow summer squash are best harvested when they are immature and only 4 to 7 inches long. To pick the fruit, cut off the vine using garden shears or a knife. If allowed to grow larger and more mature, the skin gets tougher and the seeds get bigger and harder. After harvesting, wash the fruit with clean water, and use immediately or store in the vegetable bin of the refrigerator. They will only store for a week or less.

It is important to harvest fruit as soon as they reach the right stage, because it promotes the production of more fruit. However, you and I know there is always one zucchini on the plant that hides and grows to gargantuan proportions. Sometimes these are thrown out or given away, but creative cooks will remove the hardened seeds and stuff the fruit for baking, chop it up for use in soup or grate it for adding to zucchini bread or tomato sauce.

▪ Onions: Dry onions are ready to harvest when most of their tops have fallen over. When this happens, it means the onions are done bulbing and will not get any bigger.

To harvest, carefully pull them out of the ground and shake off as much soil as possible. In heavier soils, the onions may not pull easily, so lift them using a spading fork. Then cure, or dry, the harvested bulbs in a shaded location with good air circulation.

Once the roots are dry and the skins become dry and papery, cut the tops off about 2 inches from the bulb and store them in mesh bags under dark, dry, cool (32 to 40 degrees) conditions.

Of course, you do not need to worry about curing or storing the onions if you want to eat them immediately.

Keep in mind that sweet onions, such as Walla Walla Sweets, do not store well. Yellow onions store the best, followed by red and white onions.

The green stems and immature bulbs of green onions or scallions are harvested whenever they reach the desired size. Wash green onions thoroughly with cool, clean water before eating. Because they are immature, green onions do not store well and should be kept in the refrigerator and used within a week of harvest.

▪ Cucumbers: Like their summer squash cousins, cucumbers are harvested when they are immature and before the seeds fully develop. Cut them off the vine, leaving 1/4-inch of stem attached to the fruit.

The correct size for harvesting depends on the cultivar and their intended end-use, with pickling cucumbers tending to be smaller than those cultivars for salads and fresh eating. Check the cultivar seed packet or catalog to find the correct size for harvesting. Mature cucumbers are undesirable, because they have tough skin, bigger seeds and often a bitter flavor.

Harvest cucumbers regularly to promote continued bloom and fruit production. After harvesting, wash the fruit and then store them in the refrigerator for a week or less.

Harvesting melons can be tricky, so we will tackle that topic another time.

This story was originally published July 17, 2016 at 7:07 AM with the headline "Garden Tips: Harvest vegetables at the right time."