Harvest Timing: When to Pick Eggplant, Peppers, and Tomatoes

All summer you've watered and tended your vegetables—now they're ready. But exactly when? Here's how to tell.

Eggplants

Harvest when fruits are immature and shiny. Dull-skinned mature eggplants have hard seeds, channelled flesh, and inferior flavor.

Peppers

Pick any pepper when the pod is firm and fully developed. For best flavor, harvest hot peppers (jalapeños, serranos) after they show color (jalapeños turn red; serranos can be red, orange, brown, or yellow). Sweet peppers are most flavorful when mature, often signaled by color change. Bell peppers can mature green, red, orange, yellow, or maroon; pimientos ripen red; wax types go from yellow to orange or red.

Tomatoes

Pick after fruit colors fully. In fall, when night temperatures drop below 55°F, pick any tomatoes with some color and ripen indoors on a windowsill (dark green fruit never ripens).