Harvesting your Shimo

By now you've probably been growing for some time now.

If you are growing the Lettuce or the Mesclun/Mustard greens you've may already harvested a few times. 

If you are growing Tomatoes or Peppers, you may be just about ready to harvest. 

Regardless of where you are in your Shimo journey, I wanted to share a few tips and tricks on how to get the most out of your Shimo grow. 

The Lettuce and the Mesclun/Mustard greens can be harvested three different ways.

1. Harvest all at once by pulling them from the Shimo container at the root.
2. Cut 3-4 inches above the soil - like giving them a haircut. 
3. Pull individual leaves from the stock towards the bottom of the plant. 

If you use Method #1, you can easily reseed your Shimo and start the grow journey all over again, just like you did your first time. 

Using methods #2 and #3 promote new growth for continual harvests. 

Method #2 is commonly referred to as the "cut and come again" method. You should be able to get 2 or more harvests by using this method. This method works great for Mesclun and Mustard greens At some point your greens may become bitter. You'll want to harvest all of your greens, and reseed for a continued Shimo grow journey. 

Method #3 will allow your lettuce to grow taller and taller, at some point it will start to "bolt" or as I commonly refer to as "going to flower."  This method works well for the Red Lettuce Blend.  When your lettuce begins to bolt, it will start to taste bitter. Harvest the lettuce and reseed for a continued Shimo grow journey. 

For the Mesclun/Mustard greens, when they bolt they won't turn bitter. In fact, when they flower, you can eat the amazing tasting flowers. I love to use them in craft cocktails. 

For Tomatoes your plant will begin to produce little yellow flowers. These flowers will produce tomatoes. 

Your tomatoes will start off by being green, will start to turn to a yellow and then orange and finally red. 

I'd recommend harvesting your tomatoes when they are red, they will be the sweetest and juiciest at that point. 

If your tomato plant continues to produce tomatoes all the way through the fall, they will eventually stop turning red and remain green. 

You can pick the green tomatoes and pickle them in a brine for use over the winter.  I love to put to make dirty martini's using them. 

For peppers your plant will begin to produce little white flowers. These flowers will produce peppers. 

Harvest the Shimo jalapeno peppers when they are approximately 2 inches long.

If you want a sweeter tasting pepper, you can let them grow on the plant longer, until they turn red. 

For Shimo Danvers half-long carrots, you can harvest when the carrots reach finger size. 

To check the length of the carrots you can just dig a little hole down the side of the carrot, to get a look at the overall length. If it's finger size, you can pull them out to harvest them. If you want them to grow a bit longer, leave them in there for a longer period of time. 

For Basil, you can snip from the top of the plant right above where the basil plant "branches", as this allows for continued growth.