MILPA Harvest Guide: What to Pick and When
Learn how to harvest a MILPA mix with 40-60+ crops growing at once. Find out which greens you can start picking in 30 days, when summer crops like cucumbers and squash come ready, and how frost-hardy plants extend your harvest deep into fall.
View Transcript
0:00 We get a lot of people asking about how do you harvest this. I mean, you've got, you know, 40, 50, 60 different things growing out here. Isn't that a problem to harvest? And the answer is it's not necessarily a problem. It can be a challenge.
0:14 And you're going to have things to harvest at all different times. Now when you ordered your milpa mix you should have gotten a starter packet with that, a PDF starter packet file. And part of that is going to show the different crops in the milpa mix.
0:28 Different harvest intervals or windows. And when you can do that there'll be some stuff that you could start harvesting in probably 30 days after you plant this. It's going to be mainly greens—you know, mustard greens, collard greens, turnip greens, things like that.
0:42 Those could be clipped and used in salads. Those can be used as fresh greens, and those will persist throughout the lifetime of the milpa mix and right up until the frost. Now you want to be getting those when they're young and tender. They're going to have
0:56 The best taste, the best flavor, the best way to prepare them. If they get pretty mature, then they're going to get a little more bitter. So the greens can kind of be harvested throughout. I would encourage you to refer to that listing on the starter packet.
1:10 Going to show you that after 30 days be looking for this. After 60 days be looking for this. Some things are going to come on quicker, like cucumbers and some of the summer squash that you can be harvesting again throughout the lifetime of the milpa.
1:24 Some things are going to be kind of towards the end of the season, you know, the melons and some of the winter squash. They're going to have to grow to a pretty mature level, a high level of maturity before they're really ready to pick, so that's going to be the end of.
1:49 Sweet corn can go from not ready to too ready in a relatively short period of time, so you're going to want to be on top of that. Also, if you're in an area that has a lot of raccoon pressure, you may need to
2:01 You know be watching that and if they're getting into it, you may need to try to harvest early or some people can put up electric fence to keep the coons out. So that's a concern as well but there will be things to harvest from about 30.
2:15 Days after you plant it all the way up through and even past the frost. Now a lot of the leafy greens that are in the milpa mix they are not going to die with the first frost. So your radishes, your turnips, your collards, the mustards—they're not going to die.
2:30 With the first frost so you can continue to harvest those greens even after a frost as well. So lots of things to harvest. Don't be afraid to go out there on a very regular basis. Take a basket with you because you never know what you're going to find, and frankly that's one of the fun parts of the milpa is just going out there. It's kind of like a big scavenger hunt. You don't really know what you're going to come back with but you won't come back empty-handed.