When is it time to pick? - Garden - vegetables from your garden - Brief Article

Sunset, August, 2003 by Jim McCausland

All summer you've watered and tended your vegetables, and now they're ready to harvest. Or are they? Here's how to tell.

Eggplants. Harvest fruits when they're immature and shiny. Dull-skinned mature eggplant has hard seeds and flesh that separates into channels; its flavor isn't as good.

Peppers. You can pick any pepper when the pod is firm and fully developed. But for best flavor, pick hot peppers-jalapenos, serranos-after the pods show color. (Jalapenos turn red; serranos can go red, orange, brown, or yellow.) Sweet peppers are most flavorful when mature; that's usually signaled, but not always, by color change. Bell peppers can mature green as well as red, orange, yellow, or maroon; pimientos ripen red; wax types go from yellow to orange or red.

Tomatoes. Pick after fruit colors fully. In fall, when night temperatures drop below 55[degrees], pick any tomatoes with some color and ripen them indoors on a windowsill (dark green fruit never ripens). A harvest basket holds eggplants, peppers, and tomatoes (yellow 'Sunny Goliath' and red 'Big Beef' picked late in the season).