The goal should be to harvest vegetables when quality is highest. After all, it is the quality of garden produce that sets it apart from store bought produce. Many vegetables not picked at the optimum time are stringy, woody, and tasteless, nullifying all the hard work and expense of growing the crop. Here are a few guidelines to ensure that vegetables are harvested at the peak of perfection. Green beans are ready to pick if the pods are smooth and evenly green.
Snap beans are best if they snap easily when bent in half.
Once snap bean pods start to turn yellow and the beans begin to corrugate, the pod the beans will be tough. Yellow bean cultivars should also be picked before they appear corrugated. Beets are their best at 5 cm in diameter, but over 7.5 cm they are tough and only suited to soups and processing. Only use the tender inner leaves for pot greens as the outer leaves are tough and stringy. Cut broccoli when the individual flower buds are still in tight clusters.