By JESSICA DAMIANO, Associated Press

It’s time — or getting to be time — for us gardeners to reap what we’ve sown.

Although it’s fairly evident when some edibles, like tomatoes, are ripe for the picking (uniform red, yellow or orange color), that isn’t the case with every crop.

This July 3, 2024, image provided by Jessica Damiano shows a zucchini maturing on the vine on Long Island, N.Y. Zucchini are at their most tender when they are 6-8 inches long. (Jessica Damiano via AP)

Popular crops’ telltale signs of deliciousness

Zucchini, for instance, doesn’t change color. Although it might be tempting to grow a 15-inch-long squash, it will likely be tough. For optimal tenderness, pick individual fruits when they’re 6-8 inches (15-20 centimeters) long.

All varieties of green beans should be harvested when they are about as thick as a pencil. Once the plant begins producing, check it every day or two and remove beans that are ready; the more you pick, the more the plant will make.

This undated image provided by Jessica Damiano shows a green bean ready for harvest on Long Island, N.Y. Beans should be picked when they are roughly the thickness of a pencil. (Jessica Damiano via AP)

Green peppers can be harvested at any size but are considered fully mature when they turn red. As a bonus, red peppers are sweeter and contain more nutrients.

There isn’t such a thing as an unripe cucumber — even small ones are crispy and juicy. The hazard here is allowing them to remain on the vine too long, which can result in an off-putting taste and texture. Cucumbers are considered mature when their bumpy skin smooths out.

You’ll know sweet corn is ready as soon as the silk at the top of its ear turns brown. If you still aren’t sure, peel back a small portion of husk and press your nail into a kernel; if it releases a milky fluid, it’s ripe.

Cantaloupe will practically harvest itself when the time is right: A light tug will release the melon from its stem. If any force is required, it’s not ready.

Honeydew melons are ripe when their bottoms begin to soften, and watermelons when their undersides turn a creamy white color.

This July 9, 2025, image provided by Jessica Damiano shows a patch of mature garlic plants on Long Island, N.Y. Garlic bulbs are ready to harvest when all but 5 leaves at the top of the plant have turned yellow or brown. (Jessica Damiano via AP)

When to unearth root crops

Determining when to dig up root crops can pose a bit more of a challenge, as they can’t be visually assessed without disturbing them. But there are some signs to watch for.

You’ll know garlic bulbs are mature when all but five leaves at the top of the plant have turned completely yellow or brown.

Onions are ready when their tops flop over and turn brown.

To assess beets, select one plant and push aside the soil at its base to expose the entire top of the root. Harvest when it measures between 1 ½ and 3 inches (3.8 and 5 centimeters) wide, depending on variety. If it’s too small, cover it back up, water and try again in a week. Avoid allowing beets to get too big, however, or they’ll lose sweetness and turn tough.

Standard potatoes are fully mature when their foliage dies back. But if it’s the so-called “new” potatoes you’re after, dig up the thin-skinned babies 2-3 weeks after the plant blooms. Early-maturing potato types will be ready sooner than the standard, so check tags for variety-specific details. (Note: Due to their delicate skin, new potatoes should be consumed immediately, as they do not store well.)

Carrots are ready when they poke up from underground but can be left in the soil, even into winter, until you need them.

Jessica Damiano writes weekly gardening columns for the AP and publishes the award-winning Weekly Dirt Newsletter. You can sign up here for weekly gardening tips and advice.

For more AP gardening stories, go to https://apnews.com/hub/gardening.

By Gerson Freitas Jr., Bloomberg News

American beef lovers may face even leaner plates and higher prices next year as US production shrinks to a decade low and tariffs limit imports, according to a US government projection.

Related Articles

U.S. producer prices surge in July as Trump tariffs push costs higher

South Korean Supreme Court dismisses US composer’s ‘Baby Shark’ copyright claim

NY attorney general sues Zelle’s parent company after Trump administration drops similar case

Russia restricts calls via WhatsApp and Telegram, the latest step to control the internet

Shopping for school supplies becomes a summer activity as families juggle technology and tariffs

Total beef supply in the US is expected to drop 2.5% in 2026 to 31.1 billion pounds — the lowest since 2019 — the US Department of Agriculture said in a monthly report. The decline threatens to push record beef prices even higher, with tariffs limiting importers’ ability to soften the blow.

US beef supplies have been constrained by a shrinking herd. For years, ranchers have been culling cows due to a combination of persistent drought and high costs, reducing the domestic inventory to its lowest level in several decades.

Record prices for slaughter-weight animals have fueled expectations that ranchers will begin rebuilding the herd in 2026 — but that would tighten supplies even further in the short term, as ranchers would need to retain more females for breeding rather than sending them to processors.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration has slapped hefty tariffs on shipments from Brazil, making supplies from the world’s largest beef exporter more costly.

US beef production is expected to fall 1.8% to 25.5 billion pounds next year, the lowest since 2016, while imports are projected to decline 6.1% to 4.95 billion pounds, according to the USDA. Both forecasts were revised lower from last month.

©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Visit bloomberg.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

By MATT OTT, Associated Press Business Writer

The number of Americans filing for jobless benefits fell modestly last week, remaining in the historically low range since the U.S. economy emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Applications for unemployment benefits for the week ending Aug. 9 fell by 3,000 to 224,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. That’s below the 230,000 new applications that economists had forecast.

Related Articles

U.S. producer prices surge in July as Trump tariffs push costs higher

South Korean Supreme Court dismisses US composer’s ‘Baby Shark’ copyright claim

NY attorney general sues Zelle’s parent company after Trump administration drops similar case

Russia restricts calls via WhatsApp and Telegram, the latest step to control the internet

Shopping for school supplies becomes a summer activity as families juggle technology and tariffs

Weekly applications for jobless benefits are seen as a proxy for U.S. layoffs and have mostly settled in a historically healthy range between 200,000 and 250,000 since COVID-19 throttled the economy in the spring of 2020.

Two weeks ago, a grim July jobs report sent financial markets spiraling, spurring President Donald Trump to fire Erika McEntarfer, the head of Bureau of Labor Statistics, which tallies the monthly employment numbers. The BLS does not contribute to the weekly unemployment benefits report except to calculate the annual seasonal adjustments.

U.S. employers added just 73,000 jobs in July, well short of the 115,000 analysts forecast. Worse, revisions to the May and June figures shaved 258,000 jobs off previous estimates and the unemployment rate ticked up to 4.2% from 4.1%.

Without citing evidence, Trump accused McEntarfer of rigging the jobs data for political reasons. On Monday, Trump nominated E.J. Antoni, chief economist at the conservative Heritage Foundation, to head the BLS.

While layoffs remain low by historical standards, there has been noticeable deterioration in the labor market this year and mounting evidence that people are having difficulty finding jobs.

U.S. employers posted 7.4 million job vacancies in June, down from 7.7 million in May. The number of people quitting their jobs — a sign of confidence in finding a better job — fell in June to the lowest level since December.

Some major companies have announced job cuts this year, including Procter & Gamble, Dow, CNN, Starbucks, Southwest Airlines, Microsoft, Google and Facebook parent company Meta. Intel and The Walt Disney Co. also recently announced staff reductions.

Many economists contend that Trump’s erratic rollout of tariffs against U.S. trading partners has created uncertainty for employers, who have grown reluctant to expand their payrolls.

The deadline on most of Trump’s proposed taxes on imports kicked in last week, though some deals have been made and other deadlines for negotiations — most importantly with China — have been extended. Unless Trump reaches deals with countries to lower the tariffs, economists fear they could act as a drag on the economy and spark another rise in inflation.

Also Thursday, new government data showed that U.S. wholesale inflation surged unexpectedly last month, a sign that Trump’s sweeping taxes on imports are pushing costs higher.

Thursday’s jobless benefits report showed that the four-week average of claims, which smooths out some of the week-to-week volatility, ticked up by 750 to 221,750.

The total number of Americans collecting unemployment benefits for the previous week of Aug. 2 fell by 15,000 to 1.95 million.

By PAUL WISEMAN, Associated Press Economics Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. wholesale inflation surged unexpectedly last month, signaling that President Donald Trump’s sweeping taxes on imports are pushing costs up and that higher prices may be headed toward consumers.

The Labor Department reported Thursday that its producer price index — which measures inflation before it hits consumers— rose 0.9% last month from June, biggest jump in more than three years. Compared with a year earlier, wholesale prices rose 3.3%,

Related Articles

South Korean Supreme Court dismisses US composer’s ‘Baby Shark’ copyright claim

NY attorney general sues Zelle’s parent company after Trump administration drops similar case

Russia restricts calls via WhatsApp and Telegram, the latest step to control the internet

Shopping for school supplies becomes a summer activity as families juggle technology and tariffs

Canada’s Gildan Activewear is buying HanesBrands for $2.2 billion

The numbers were much higher than economists had expected.

Prices rose faster for producers than consumers last month, suggesting that U.S. importers may, for now, be eating the cost of Trump’s tariffs rather than passing them on to customers.

That may not last.

“It will only be a matter of time before producers pass their higher tariff-related costs onto the backs of inflation-weary consumers,” wrote Christopher Rupkey, chief economist at fwdbonds, a financial markets research firm.

Excluding volatile food and energy prices, so-called core producer prices rose 0.9% from June, biggest month-over-month jump since March 2022. Compared with a year ago, core wholesale prices rose 3.7% after posting a 2.6% year-over-year jump in June.

The wholesale inflation report two days after the Labor Department reported that consumer prices rose 2.7% last month from July 2024, same as the previous month and up from a post-pandemic low of 2.3% in April. Core consumer prices rose 3.1%, up from 2.9% in June. Both figures are above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target.

The new numbers suggest that slowing rent increases and cheaper gas are at least partly offsetting the impacts of Trump’s tariffs. Many businesses are also likely still absorbing much of the cost of the duties instead of passing them along to customers via higher prices.

Wholesale prices can offer an early look at where consumer inflation might be headed. Economists also watch it because some of its components, notably measures of health care and financial services, flow into the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge — the personal consumption expenditures, or PCE, index.