Tomatoes and cold

This month has been unseasonably cool. While this is nice for those of us who are heat sensitive and can't eat if it is too hot, it is not great for veggies. My cucumbers have decided it is fall and are done. They have died back and I think they are completely done producing. There may be one or two little cucumbers left from them but nothing like the multiple dozen I was harvesting a week.

But I'm not here to talk to you about cucumbers today. No. I am here to talk to you about tomatoes. Delicious nightshades, the base for red sauces and chili, the lovely red slice atop your burger. I could continue but I will not. Tomatoes are delicious is what I'm getting at here.

Tomatoes also love heat. They ripen best when left on the vine in the hot days of July and August, lazily turning ripe while the world slows down and butterflies drift by. Except this year. It is mid-August and it almost hit freezing at  night this week. Tomatoes ripen very very slowly in cool weather. And won't ripen at all after frost hits.

So what is a gardener to do? For as long as the weather holds out and frost stays away, leave them on the vine and just wait patiently. If however you see frost in the forecast? Harvest everything. Even the green ones. You can ripen them inside.They won't be as good as ones that are vine ripened, but they'll be better than store bought and better than having lost half  your crop because Mother Nature is a frigid bitch this year.

You need:

A box.
Newspaper.
A place that doesn't get too cold and has very little draft. Like a basement, or a count on your kitchen if you only have a few tomatoes.

Carefully wrap the green tomatoes in news paper, pack them into the box. Set the box in your chosen place and wait a few days. Check your tomatoes frequently because you don't want them to zip past ripe and into overly-ripe/almost rotten territory.

That's it. Ripen your tomatoes indoors and outsmart Mother Nature!

Tune in next time where I'm sure I'm going to pay for that comment somehow.