Page 40 - Bringing out the Potential In Our Children - Gardeners - Food Producers

Cauliflower will keep for about a week in the refrigerator if
wrapped in plastic. It does not store well in a root cellar. The
best way to store cauliflower for longer periods is to blanch
and freeze it.

For more, use our in-depth Growing Guide:

Growing Cauliflower

Corn (sweet) Look for dark brown, soft silks (not brittle silks), and pick the
ears when the kernels are plump and tender and when milky
liquid comes out when you prick them with your fingernail. If
the liquid is clear and watery, the corn isn't ripe yet; if there is
no liquid, the kernels are too ripe and past prime.

Corn tastes best when picked in the later afternoon because of
its higher sugar content. Harvest by twisting the ear off the
plant in a downward direction. Because the sugar in the corn
quickly converts to starch, eat or preserve the corn
immediately after harvesting.

The sugar-enhanced or super-sweet varieties hold their
sweetness and may be kept in the refrigerator a few days
longer than standard cultivars. Freeze or can any surplus corn
you may have.

For more, use our in-depth Growing Guide:

Growing Sweet Corn

Cucumber Cucumbers mature very quickly. Pick them often so the plants
continue to produce. Fruits may become oversized if left on the
vine even a day too long.

Slicing Cucumbers

Can be harvested whenever they are big enough to use, but
before they begin to turn orange or yellow. If your vines bear
more than you can use at one time, pick them anyway because
allowing them to ripen to the orange stage on the vine will
cause the plant to stop producing.

With slicing cucumbers (as opposed to pickling cucumbers)
keep fruits picked so that each plant has only 2 or 3 fruits
growing at a time.

To pick, hold the stem with one hand and pull the fruit with the
other. Harvest fruits when they are young and the seeds inside
have not begun to harden.

Cucumbers contain mostly water, so the key to storing them
after the harvest is to keep that water in, a reason many
cucumbers in supermarkets are waxed. Wrap the fruits in