HOW TO PICK VEGETABLES 



tendril by the stem of the melon is its signal ; when 

 the tendril dries up the melon is ripe. Other people 

 test by pressing hard on the fruit. If you can hear 

 a cracking sound the melon is ripe ; still others tap 

 it. If it sounds hollow they consider it ripe. Still 

 others "plug" a melon, which means they cut out a 

 small square piece and see if the center is red. But 

 I think this a very bad way, because if the melon 

 is not ripe, the hole lets in air and ants and the fruit 

 is apt to be spoiled when ripe enough to eat. 



Swiss Chard you will remember is a kind of beet 

 whose leaves we eat instead of the root. When you 

 are thinning your Swiss Chard pull up the whole 

 plant, but when you are done thinning and the 

 plants left in the row have grown tall and the mid- 

 rib of the leaves firm and white, break off the outside 

 leaves close to the root, either by cutting or bending 

 the leaf backward toward the ground. This plant 

 grows from the center like parsley; you can keep 

 using the outside leaves all summer. 



Okra should be gathered when the seed pods are 

 young and tender. If they stay on the plant too 

 long they get hard and woody. Always cut them ; 

 never try to break them for you are liable to break 

 the whole plant. 



