My vines are still heavy with tomatoes -- but most of 'em are nowhere near ripe for the picking. And the way September has started out, I'm worried that that they never will be.
I was hoping for an easy slide from August into fall, with lots of warm, sunny, vine-ripening days ahead. Instead, it was a cool, blustery transition, as abrupt for the garden as it was for the kids heading back to school. I'm already wearing a leather jacket. And my tomatoes are sitting in suspended animation.
I'll keep my fingers crossed for a few balmier days, and leave the tomatoes on the the vine until the first threat of frost. But when that comes -- later rather than sooner, if we're lucky, I'll pick 'em and try to ripen 'em indoors.
My grandmother always set tomatoes on a sunny windowsill to ripen. But that's not recommended, according to horticultural experts. Tomatoes that have started to turn at least light green will continue to ripen if stored out of direct sunlight and at temperatures between 60 and 70 degrees. (Sounds like the basement.)
For more information about ripening tomatoes indoors, visit www.morris.umn.edu/pyg/tips/vegetables/tip_1401.shtml
Do you have a lot of still-green tomatoes this season? What's your preferred ripening method?
