Garden Tedious Harvesting Pick Early and Pick Often part 3

You’re growing cauliflower, and you’re too lazy to tie leaves over the forming head to keep it white? Partially break a few leaves and let them rest on the developing head, for easy blanching.

When harvesting cabbage, cut the head instead of pulling the plant out of the ground. You may get another crop of smaller heads.

Cut six to eight inches of stem with the main head of broccoli to encourage production of lateral heads. Don’t discard that stem when you cook the broccoli. Peel off the tough outer skin and it is just as tender when steamed as the florets. Always harvest broccoli when florets are in tight bud. Never let a yellow flower show its face.

Chinese cabbage likes cool weather. To get it to head in heat, loosely tie up all but the outer eight leaves. Do this about one month after seedlings are set out in the garden.

The greens of those beet seeds you broadcast in a wide row can be picked clean a section at a time. Pull, line up a handful, and snip off the roots with shears.

Too lazy to shell peas? Grow edible-podded snap peas instead, for plump peas (with pod) without the work of shelling. Pick, string, and steam or stir-fry briefly, until the pods turn bright green, and eat while still crunchy. Or blanch for one minute and freeze. Steam or sauté just enough to warm them up when you take them out of the freezer.

Too lazy to cook them? They’re wonderful raw — just remove the strings. You can have your salad right out there at the vine, or wait until you cut them up and add to early lettuce. Eat them raw like carrots, serve with a dip, or take on picnics as finger food.

Too lazy to string them? Let the eaters do it, as they would shell cold, cooked shrimp.

If you string edible-podded snap peas, there’s a right way and a wrong way, says Eleanor Kolkebeck. The right way can save many minutes. The wrong way produces broken strings, wasted time, and a frustrated harvester. The right way:

Start at the stem end. With a sharp paring knife, cut through the pod just below the cap toward the outside curve and pull off the string down to the tip. Next, cut through the tip and pull the string on the inside curve. It’s important to do the outside part first, or the string won’t come off in one piece.

Save time when you process snap beans. Cut off only the stem end. The tip tastes perfectly fine, so why bother to cut it off?

Your harvest of snap beans is prolific. You’ve already put enough in the freezer to last the winter. You’ve eaten all you can fresh. What to do with the rest?

Never twist eggplants or peppers off the mother plant. Cut or snip off with knife or shears, and leave a short stem on each fruit.

Don’t pull kohlrabi. To avoid disturbing remaining plants, just cut off below the “bulb” with a sharp knife.

If Patty Pan squash just don’t seem to be worth the effort you’re putting into growing them, perhaps you’re harvesting them at the wrong time. Pick them when they’re no more than three inches in diameter. That way they’re delicious.

“There’s nothing better than a sun-ripened tomato,” exults a lazy gardener, “but nothing worse than reaching out to pick one and ending up with a handful of mush, because the mice or rabbits got there first.” She picks just before the height of ripeness to foil the varmints.

Before a killing frost arrives, harvest all tomatoes except the tiny ones. Cut the fruits off the vine, leaving two inches of stem on each. The extra time it takes to do this will ensure better flavor after ripening. The tomatoes must be kept in a cool (45 to 50° F.), dark (important) place. Wrap each one separately in newspaper. Check frequently, for a supply of tomatoes through Thanksgiving.

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Garden Tedious Harvesting Pick Early and Pick Often part 3

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