ensures maximizing their flavor and nutritional value. This quick overview will help you determine their peak while these harvesting guidelines will provide additional reading.

Lima beans pods should be well-filled, with spongy tips. Green or snap bean pods will be smooth, evenly green, firm, and snap readily, with flexible tips. Yellow beans will be smooth and firm. Any bean with a "corrugated look" is tough.

For tender, sweet-tasting beets, pull at 1-2"diameter -- larger beets are tough. Use greens when 4-6" long.

Cut broccoli and cauliflower while heads are compact, before any color change or flowering. Develop a second broccoli crop by leaving 5-6" of stem in the ground.

Harvest Brussels sprouts at 1" diameters; lower sprouts as they mature. Removing lower leaves encourages growth.

Harvest firm cabbages as small as 4" diameter. Large cabbages can crack and split. Harvest firm sprouts on cut stem at 2-4".

Pull tender, sweet carrots at ?" diameter. Carrots, larger than 1", are woody. Replant carrots in summer; leave until a killing frost or until ground freezes if mulched.

Pick corn when silk darkens and shrivels ? about 20 days after it first appears. For best flavor, the kernel?s liquid should be milky, not watery. If the liquid has a toothpaste consistency, use kernels for creamed corn and chowders.

Immediately pick eggplants when they turn dark purple and shiny, 6-8" long.

Harvest leafy vegetables, such as lettuce and spinach, when their size warrants the effort.

Pull up garlic when the tops start to yellow and dry ? for onions, after most of the tops have fallen off. Pull green onions when tops reach 6", with pencil thick stems. Leeks are best when the stem?s diameter is ?-1 ?".

Tasty muskmelons ripen in warm, dry weather. They?re ready if the stem separates easily from the fruit. Watermelons are ripe when the curled tendrils shrivel and dry or when the bottom turns from light green to yellow.

Leave parsnips in the ground until tops freeze. Mulch with straw for winter-long harvest. Turnips should be 2-3" in diameter. Mulch for early winter harvest.

Peas should be picked before pods appear round in cross-section. Chinese and snow peas should be1 ?-2" long and flat ? 5-7 days after flowering.

Peppers can be harvested anytime. For a mellower, sweeter taste, ripen to red or yellow. Hot peppers, except Jalapenos which remain green, are usually harvested red.

Harvest new potatoes when the plants flower. For mature potatoes, wait until the vine dies.

Larger radishes become hot and woody ? for best flavor pull marble-sized to 1".

Pick summer squash 4-8 days after flowering, 6-8" long. Wait until the vine dies for winter squash. Spaghetti squash is ready when golden yellow, banana squash when golden orange. Zucchini 6-8" long has the best flavor. Harvest all squashes frequently to encourage continuous growth.

Harvest tomatoes anytime but, for fullest flavor, pick uniformly red fruit ? about 5 days after the first sign of pink.

Enjoy your garden vegetables by sampling Renee Shepherd?s recipe collection.