Most fruits and vegetables are best harvested in the morning

Silicon Valley Community Newspapers

Posted:?07/25/2011 07:31:02 PM PDTUpdated:?07/25/2011 07:31:03 PM PDT
My colleagues and I are rather proficient in communicating with the plants in the garden. Plants let us know when they want a particular nutrient or are getting hassled by a particular pest. Those that produce fruit and vegetables also tell us when it is time to harvest. The only problem is that some horticulturists are not quite as receptive to information about ripening produce as we are to problems.

As my tomatoes ripen, I eat them whenever I want to, even if they are warm from hanging out in the sun. Any fruits or vegetables are fair game as soon as they are ready to get eaten. Although I will grow just about anything in my garden, I never bothered to learn how cook or even handle fruits and vegetables properly. For me, the best time to harvest is when I am hungry.

Those of us with more discriminating taste eventually become acquainted with the produce that we grow, so that we know when and how to harvest it to achieve the best quality. We learn how to translate the fragrance of a ripening melon, and to tap to determine density and consistency. Maturity of corn can be determined by their drying tassels, and confirmed by puncturing a few kernels. Color and texture of pea pods let us know when the peas within have achieved their optimum plumpness.

Renee of Renee's Garden, which is perhaps my favorite supplier of vegetable and flower seed, describes some less obvious recommendations for harvesting produce at the

website www.reneesgarden.com. While the weather is so pleasant through summer, it is best to harvest vegetables in the morning, while it is still cool in the garden. If harvested later in the day, vegetables can wilt because of evaporation of moisture and absorption of warmth. If harvesting in the morning is not possible, harvesting in the evening is the next best option.

Leafy vegetables such as lettuce, chard, collard, basil and parsley, as well as pea, are particularly sensitive to getting harvested during warm weather. Green beans grow like weeds during warm days, but are slightly crisper if picked while cool. Vegetables in the cabbage family that are grown later in the year or early in the following year, such as cauliflower and broccoli, can likewise get limp.

Root vegetables such as carrot, radish and turnip are not nearly as sensitive to warmth because they are so well insulated underground. They should be brought in out of the warmth and refrigerated (if preferred) quickly nonetheless. However, turnip greens and any other greens that are grown as root vegetables are just as likely to wilt as other leafy vegetables are.

Eggplant, pepper and zucchini are more resilient, but can potentially get limp if harvested a few days before getting eaten and left to linger in a warm and dry (minimal humidity) kitchen. Many varieties of tomato are best directly out of the garden; but many others actually get better flavor if harvested a bit early and left to finish off the vine. In autumn, when tomato plants stop producing, the last but nearly mature green tomatoes that run out of warm weather can finish ripening on the kitchen windowsill.

Flower of the Week: Passion Vine

My niece knows the weird flowers of passion vine as "flying saucers" because they look like something from another planet. The most common species, Passiflora X alatocaerulea, has fragrant, 4-inch-wide flowers with slightly pinkish or lavender shaded white outer petals and sepals around deep blue or purple halos that surround the alien-looking central flower parts. The 3-inch-long leaves have three blunt lobes and can sometimes be rather yellowish. The rampant vines can climb more than 20 feet, and become shabby and invasive, but may die to the ground when winter gets cold. Other specie have different flower colors. Some produce interesting fruit. Passiflora edule is actually grown more for its small but richly sweet fruit than for flowers.

Horticulturist Tony Tomeo can be contacted at 408.358.2574 or lghorticulture@aol.com. Other gardening articles can be found at www.examiner.com/x-54419-

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