This might seem like a simple post, but today I want to share with you how I harvest my vegetables out of my garden. Have you ever had several heads of lettuce come to harvest at the same time and then you had so much lettuce you didn’t know what to do with it? You work hard on growing your produce all season long. So how disappointing is it when all your produce ripens all at once and then it ends up going bad? I’d say very frustrating!
To solve this problem, I started harvesting my produce before it was fully ready for harvest. Let me explain. I am going to use lettuce and herbs as my example. My lettuce is very young right now. If I was harvesting a full head of lettuce I would probably wait for another month to enjoy my harvest. But I am not going to do that.
Often times people harvest the entire plant and then you have to eat lettuce all week just to finish that head of lettuce before it goes bad!
Well I have some great news! There is no need to wait anymore until the whole head of lettuce is ready! Wouldn’t it be nice to eat lettuce over a course of several months and not 1 week? Well this is how I do just that. The first thing I want to note is that sometimes produce is often sweetest and taste the best at a young age. So when I am ready for a salad, I simply head on out to my garden and clip the outer leaves of the plant. Always work from the outer leaves first and work your way towards the center of the lettuce.
Now I have several heads of lettuce in my garden so I don’t just harvest from one plant, but I take a little off of a few plants at a time. You hardly even notice that anything is missing from the plant and better yet, your plant continues to grow and create more and more lettuce. Doesn’t this make sense? You now can enjoy lettuce throughout the entire growing season versus enjoying it for one week. Now that is smart if you ask me! 🙂
I also wanted to note that I usually will make a blended salad and harvest a few butter crunch leaves, a few spinach leaves, a few arugula leaves, some fresh cilantro and dill to create the freshest salad ever!
So when you are planting your garden, plant a variety of lettuce and herbs and think, what is it that I want in my salad bowl? This will create the best tasting salad that you can enjoy throughout the season!
Click on the second picture for the image credit!
I usually do this! It was so cool to make a huge salad with mostly items from my garden! I had lunch at work for 2 days. : )
Halle, when planting potatoes in a laundry basket….how many seed potatoes do you plant…..I see you cut them so there are 2 – 3 eyes
This is a great idea, I’ve done that before, for the same reason. I tend to harvest beens, squash, snap peas a little younger too, they are more tender. Thanks for sharing this on Hearth & Soul Hop. 🙂
Reita I used 1 full seed potato (that was cut up into 3 pieces) into 1 basket.
Tks so much Halle, missed your response so I did go ahead and plant one basket…the seed potatoes I have are kinda small so i did use 2 cut into couple pieces…so we will see how it grows…am getting a lot of garden in and using your great ideas….Love Love your site!!!
Thanks Reita 🙂 To be clear, I missed your post so I responded late, sorry!
mmm, and the baby lettuce always tastes better too! Don’t you think? Great tips. Sometimes those short and sweet posts are just what we need. 🙂
Excellent post! Veggies taste so lovely when they are young and fresh!
I have just found you on pinterest. Great info ! I just have a question on the square foot gardening grid. What did you use to make it. Thanks so much. I’ve already learned a lot from your posts.
@Gardening mama I am glad you enjoyed this post 🙂 I did a whole how-to video on your question…here it is:
https://wholelifestylenutrition.com/videos/how-to-build-a-raised-bed-garden/
Let us know if you have any other questions.