Week 10 - Harvest, Cleaning, & Storage

For episode/article 10 for This Week in the Garden, we’ll cover harvest, cleaning, and short-term storage. Who knew that there’s a right way and a wrong way to pick your vegetables? In this article/vlog we’ll cover how to that, as well as, how to wash your vegetables, and which vegetables need refrigerated.

In my mind, the harvest is the best part of gardening. It’s the culmination of months of hard work that will soon be a nutritious meal. To have the best-tasting vegetables, it’s important to pick mature vegetables. That varies from vegetable to vegetable and even between different varieties of the same vegetable. For example, zucchini and summer squash should be harvested based on length, not thickness to avoid large seeds. Rainy weather can produce much thicker fruit than dry weather. Beans on the other hand should be harvested based on the thickness, or how full the pod is instead of the length. Specific harvest information for each variety can usually be found on the seed packet or from the company that sold the seeds/transplants.

Once the vegetables have reached maturity, try to not damage the plant or the fruit when harvesting. The two main reasons to avoid damage are to reduce the stress on the plant and to prevent open wounds on the harvested vegetable. Stress can allow pathogens to enter the plant and can reduce future harvest quantity and quality. This is less important on plants that you only harvest once or twice like sweet corn. Open wounds, on the other hand, can lead to premature spoilage. To prevent both of these issues when harvesting I recommend using pruning shears or knives to make clean cuts. Make sure to be careful to not cut the stems while you’re harvesting!

Timing is another important factor when harvesting. To make your harvest last long, always harvest in the morning if you can. The cool temperatures of the morning slow the spoilage process and will prolong their shelf-life. This is especially important with sweet corn, where ears harvested in the morning will have a higher sugar and water content, making the corn taste sweeter and less tough.

From this section forward, I’m talking about vegetables other than root vegetables; I’ll have a few other articles addressing onion and potatoes. Once you’ve picked your vegetables, it’s important to get them out of the heat and cooled off and rinsed. I recommend washing everything that comes out of the garden, regardless of if you spray pesticides or not. Some vegetables, like beans and sweet corn, should be washed in the coldest water possible to help slow down the spoiling process. Other vegetables, like tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers should be washed with an average tap temperature water as cooler water may result in cold damage. Most other vegetables should be rinsed with cool water. Once washed, vegetables should be patted dry.

After washing vegetables should either be stored in the refrigerator or on the counter. Tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, squash, melons, and slicing cucumbers all keep best at room temperature. These vegetables suffer cold damage which can lead to soft spots and spoilage. All other vegetables should be stored in the refrigerator. If properly harvested, cleaned, and stored, most vegetables will last for 10 - 14 days! For more information on proper harvest and storage techniques, check out this article from N.C. State University.

That’s all for this article from This Week in the Garden. If you’ve missed any articles, check out our website where we keep them archived and fill out our form if you have any comments or questions. Of course, stay tuned until next time for This Week in the Garden.

-Adam