Help with gardening

[Virginia Gent]

I need some help from the more experienced members here in the realm of gardening; more to the point, how to tell when you veggies are ready to be picked. I've helped my mom garden many times, but I never paid attention to when it was time to harvest. My girlfriend and I are growing tomatoes and peppers, and the peppers haven't turned color yet, but some of the tomatoes have turned a nice, bright red. I think they might be ready but I don't wanna pluck 'em too soon. So is there a certain way to tell or do you just wait for that nice bright color to show up before pullin' them off? Thanks for any and all advice!!

[muldoon]

i pick both just as they are turning color.  the tomatoes will go from pink to red after being picked.  in fact most grocery store tomatoes were picked bright green and ripened to red on the truck.  I usually put the pink or orangish tomatoes on the kitchen windowsill until they get bright red.  If I leave the on the vine until they go full red the birds will get them. 

peppers are good green yellow orange or red.  I pick by size and not necessarily color, waiting for them to begin changing will be just fine.  taste test them will work too.  cant go too wrong with peppers. 

[Ndrmyr]

You can tell a lot by how strongly attached a vegetable is to its stem.  As it ripens, the stem will loosen. An immature fruit will be held far more strongly than a ripe one.  I see no reason to pick tomatos prematurely other than to avoid the frost. Some mature tomatos have a pinkish hue ranging to crimson and even burgundy depending on the varietal. We will pick all the fruit to avoid a freeze, but a sill-ripened tomato, although far superior to a store tomato, still is not as good as a fully vine-ripened one.
Green Peppers can be harvested as needed when large enough but will begin to change color to yellow or red and become sweeter. Harvesting peppers at a variety of ripeness will give you a welcome change of flavors. Enjoy.