This was the year of the tomato! Not since 2008 have we grown so many tomatoes. In 2008 we lived in East Charlotte, Vermont, in the Lake Champlain Valley where, on average, it was ten degrees warmer than it is up Spruce Mountain in Plainfield, Vermont.
The tomatoes ripened on the vine without the help of a cold frame, which amazed me. And we didn't get blight because of how Spruce Mountain blocks weather patterns coming from the south and west. If September wasn't as glorious as it was with no frosts the whole month, we would have very few tomatoes. But, we have plenty! Sixteen quarts of salsa and nine quarts of tomato sauce later, they are still growing.
However, many of the tomatoes are still green and now the frosts are coming. So, we picked the entirety, washed and dried them and then separated them by more than half ripe and less than half/green.
We laid the somewhat ripe tomatoes on a tablecloth on the kitchen table where they will ripen over the next week or so and give us a steady supply of ripe tomatoes through October.
We placed the green tomatoes on paper towels in cardboard boxes where they will sit in our cold storage room in the basement between 50-55 degrees. They should ripen through the next 2-3 months and should give us tomatoes through the holidays!
The trick to slow ripening green tomatoes is to check them often and remove any that are starting to rot and make sure none of the tomatoes touch one another. And that they are stored under 60 degrees with low humidity (we often run the dehumidifier).
The tomatoes ripened on the vine without the help of a cold frame, which amazed me. And we didn't get blight because of how Spruce Mountain blocks weather patterns coming from the south and west. If September wasn't as glorious as it was with no frosts the whole month, we would have very few tomatoes. But, we have plenty! Sixteen quarts of salsa and nine quarts of tomato sauce later, they are still growing.
However, many of the tomatoes are still green and now the frosts are coming. So, we picked the entirety, washed and dried them and then separated them by more than half ripe and less than half/green.
We laid the somewhat ripe tomatoes on a tablecloth on the kitchen table where they will ripen over the next week or so and give us a steady supply of ripe tomatoes through October.
We placed the green tomatoes on paper towels in cardboard boxes where they will sit in our cold storage room in the basement between 50-55 degrees. They should ripen through the next 2-3 months and should give us tomatoes through the holidays!
The trick to slow ripening green tomatoes is to check them often and remove any that are starting to rot and make sure none of the tomatoes touch one another. And that they are stored under 60 degrees with low humidity (we often run the dehumidifier).
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