Harvesting - Part 1

Harvesting - Part 1

To harvest your crops correctly you'll need to use the right tools. In this lesson, I'll show you how to harvest peas, lettuce, beetroots and kale.

There's nothing like harvesting your own homegrown fruit and vegetables and for vegetable gardeners, it is one of the most satisfying parts of growing food. When it's time to harvest your produce though, there are a few things to consider.

Harvesting Tools:

Harvest Knives

Harvest knives are really useful for harvesting leafy crops such as kale, chard, lettuces and salad leaves. A good harvest knife will ensure you get a clean cut, which will prevent damage from happening to your plant.

When cutting leaves from a cut and come again crop like kale, always take the leaves from the outside of the plant, and avoid cutting the main growing point in the centre.

Snips and Secateurs

Sharp snips are really good for harvesting peas and beans. They will ensure you get a clean and neat cut, without causing any damage to your plant, which can happen when you try and harvest them by hand. Alternatively, if you don't have snips to hand then a good pair of secateurs will do the job just as well.

Or, if all you have to hand is a pair of scissors, as long as they're sharp they will work just as well.

Harvesting the Peas

While you might be tempted to wait until you have enough peas to harvest for a full meal, when it comes to peas the more you pick, the more they will produce.

So even if you only had a few pods, start picking them when they are ready to ensure a bigger harvest over the coming weeks

How to Know If Your Peas Are Ready for Harvesting

When your pea pods are ready to pick they will appear swollen and you'll be able to see the shape of the peas within. If you're not sure whether they're ready or not, just try picking one and taking a look inside.

If the peas are fully formed, then you can use this pod as a guide to the ones you need to pick next.

How to Harvest Your Peas

To harvest your peas, use a sharp pair of snips, scissors or secateurs just above its hat. If you harvest by hand you risk tearing your plant and creating a wound which could let in disease or damage your plant's overall health.

Different Ways to Harvest Lettuce

There are two main ways to harvest lettuce:

1. The Cut and Come Again Method

Cut and come again means you are continuously picking the leaves from the outside of the lettuce while leaving the inside where the growing shoot is. This method ensures you will have a continuous supply of salad leaves.

To harvest individual leaves, snap the leaves from the outside of the lettuce at the base with a quick and clean movement, trying not to damage the main stem of the plant. Using this method means that your lettuce could last a couple of months.

2. Harvesting the Whole Head at Once

Harvesting the whole head at once means you will take the whole lettuce in one go. You will then have a lot of lettuce at once, but you will end its life cycle and will have to plant another one for more leaves.

To harvest a whole head of lettuce, find the base of the stem and cut through it with your harvest knife. You can then leave the base of the stem and the root system in the soil to decompose and feed the soil life below.

Harvesting the Beetroot

I've sown my beetroot successionally so that I can have a continuous supply instead of one large glut.

With beetroot, the entirety of the plant is edible, so nothing needs to go to waste. Treat the leaves the same way you would treat chard by either cooking them or eating them raw in salads.

When it comes to harvesting beetroot, you're looking for something between the size of a golf ball and a tennis ball. The smaller they are the more tender they will be, so it depends on your taste. Larger and older beetroot can become a bit woody, so don't leave them in the ground for too long after they've developed.

To harvest your beetroot, simply twist it out of the ground.

Harvesting the Kale

I harvest my two favourite varieties of kale - Cavolo Nero and Red Russian - using the cut and come again method.

To do this, snap the leaves at the base of the plant from the outside, leaving the growing heart in the middle to continue producing new leaves.

Harvesting Kohlrabi

To harvest kohlrabi, cut through the stem with a pair of secateurs and leave the base of the plant and the root system in the ground to decompose.