A harvesting machine particularly suitable for picking or harvesting vegetables, such as peppers or tomatoes, employs a harvesting frame on which is mounted a rotating shaft aligned transversely to the direction of movement of the machine. A pair of spaced apart picking members are mounted on the shaft on opposite sides of a row of plants having a crop to be harvested. The picking members are simultaneously rotated; and each of them has a plurality of arcuate picking elements pivotally mounted on them. The picking elements rotate with the picking members in the same direction of movement of the machine; and as the picking elements rotate downwardly above the row of plants, a cam pivots them into a position adjacent the picking members, spaced away from a plant located between the picking members. As the machine passes over the plant, the picking elements are moved by a second cam into a position to extend into the space between the picking members to engage the plant to be picked and remove crop therefrom for deposition onto a conveyor for removal from the machine.