5 tips for harvesting food from your garden 👇🏼🌱 🍅Don’t wait until your tomatoes are fully ripe. I like to pick them when they’re about 75% colored up and let them finish ripening on the counter. You’ll still get great flavor, and you’re less likely to lose them to cracking, pests, or birds. 🥒Check your cucumbers every day. They can go from perfect to gigantic in less than 48 hours. When you harvest, leave about ¼ inch of stem attached to help protect the fruit. 🥬 Harvest cabbage by feel, not size. Give the head a squeeze and you want it to feel firm and dense, not soft or spongy. And if you can, harvest in the morning when the head is cool and crisp. 🌼 Those first zucchini flowers aren’t a waste. The flowers on the long, skinny stems are male flowers. They’ll never turn into zucchini, so once you have plenty for pollination, you can harvest a few, stuff them, batter them, and fry them. 🍅 Keep your tomatoes out of the refrigerator. Cold temperatures can dull their flavor and change the texture, making them more mealy. Leave them on the counter instead. Harvesting at the right time can make just as much difference as growing it in the first place! #garden #tip #homestead #harvest #shilohfarm - @shilohfarm