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A Guide to Timely Harvesting

Timely Harvesting – To make your veggies taste amazing and get plenty of them, you need to be savvy about when you pick them. It’s not just about grabbing them randomly; there’s a bit of an art to it. Let’s break down when to gather different veggies for the best results.

1. Grab Some Asparagus: Easy Harvesting Tips Pick your asparagus when it’s six to ten inches tall. Just snap it off at the ground. Do this over six to eight weeks, but make sure the spears are thin like pencils.
2. Easy Beets: When to Harvest for Yumminess If you planted beets in spring, start picking when they’re one inch wide. The main harvest happens when they’re two to three inches across. Don’t forget about the young beet greens—they’re tasty too. Harvest fall beets before it gets really cold or put a lot of mulch to keep them growing into fall.
3. Hanging Out with Cool Crops: Broccoli, Cabbage, and Cauliflower Cool crops love the cool weather. Harvest broccoli before the flowers open up. Cabbage heads are ready when they’re solid. Cauliflower needs a little trick: tie leaves above the head when it’s two inches across. This keeps them white, and you can pick them in a few weeks when they’re bigger.
4. Easy Carrots and Lettuce Harvesting Carrots are good to go when they’re one to two inches thick. Use harvesting to thin them out, so some get bigger. Spring carrots are for before July’s heat, and late-season ones are before the ground freezes. For lettuce, just pick the outer leaves and let more grow inside for a longer harvest.
5. Spinach and Green Onions Made Easy Pick spinach by leaf or the whole plant. Do it before the days get long, or it gets hot, and the spinach starts growing tall and flowering. Green onions are ready to harvest whenever they’re the size you like. Dry onions are perfect for eating when they’re between a quarter and an inch across.
6. Harvesting Pods: Peas and Radishes Grab your garden peas when the pods are light green and full but not yellow. Snow peas are best when the seeds start showing but before they fill out. Radishes, those little guys, get picked when they’re half to one inch wide. Finish up before July’s heat or for fall crops before the ground freezes.
7. Rhubarb and Turnips: Simple Delights Rhubarb stalks are good for picking when they’re half to one inch wide. Remember, only pick the stalks, not the leaves—they’re not good to eat. Turnips are cool with a bit of frost, and they taste better that way. But don’t wait too long, or the stems might get hard.

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