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The Great Tomato Ripening Experiment.


Several weeks ago I showed you my green tomato experiment. Were they going to ripen from completely green? Well, here is the photo I took a few days ago.


These are all that are left. Every single one has ripened over the last few weeks, and I am so excited to have stretched out the harvest for another six weeks or so. I found that they ripen most on the side turned to the light, so rotated them every few days. Fresh garden tomatoes. In late May! I am loving it.
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Unknown said…
That's pretty cool. Im a new gardener and was told to take down my beloved tomato vines because they were attracting pests in their weakened state. I dont know how, nor had time, to make a green tomato pickle nor was i too sure how green is green. So i composted them. It felt like such a waste. Next time, im trying your trick. I did however, eat my first corn cob this weekend in May. Check out post. Im Happy!!! Despite all the doom and gloom from Linda.
Monday, 27 May, 2013
Jo said…
Hi Lynda, I did visit to ogle your corn - what a triumph, corn in May - well done. It looks divine.
I hear you on the angst of 'wasting' veg that took so much time and effort to grow, which is why I thought I'd try this. I vaguely remember my mother-in-law having her laundry floor covered with ripening green tomatoes, but not being with us anymore, I couldn't ask her about it.
Hence the experiment. I am so excited that it worked, and glad it's helpful to someone else. Sometimes I post these things thinking I'm a complete idiot, and everyone else in the world must already know this...
Monday, 27 May, 2013
Unknown said…
Me too, but no, we dont all know it all and like you we have a vague memory of something we heard about or saw but need someone else to confirm it. I grew up on a self-sufficent farm. I have a memory bank that has flashes of things but it remains firmly closed until someone triggers it by mentioning it. Thanks. I run three companies as Commercial Manager, but that does not make me a good gardener. So when i have a success, like my corn, i shout it out to the world. I took that second half cob and cut the corn off, added it to roasted pumpkin cubes, sweated leeks and feta in a quiche that was today's lunch. It didnt make it. I have a bit of time today, so im running back through some of your posts (Oh, im off today).
Monday, 27 May, 2013
Anonymous said…
Love an experiment that works! I can almost smell the tomatoey smell from here!
Monday, 27 May, 2013
Heather said…
I have to show this post to my dad. He always thinks he is stuck making fried green tomatoes at the end of the season. For some reason, he doesn't believe me when I tell them they will still turn red off the vine.
Wednesday, 29 May, 2013
narf7 said…
Clever girl :). I just turned my tomato plants over to the dark side (let the chooks in to wreak their havoc) but they are still growing maniacally despite being right royally plundered. My daughters told me about that market you mentioned in a later post and said that they were going to head over there. They live in Riverside. I doubt that they will walk ;). We still have eggplants that refuse to give up the ghost and our chilli plants are pretending that they are perennial. We don't get much frost out here on the river and living on a North facing slope covered in rocks does have it's benefits I suppose ;)
Wednesday, 29 May, 2013
Jo said…
Heather, I wasn't quite sure either - I thought they had to be at least a little pink to ripen off the vine, but apparently not. I do love it when an experiment turns out...
Thursday, 30 May, 2013
Jo said…
And Fran - if only I had space I would have left my tomatoes to keep growing as well. But I have a suburban garden, and can't give garden room to tomatoes AND garlic at once... all the best with your perennial egg plants. And Steve Solomon says you can't grow eggplants in Northern Tas!
Thursday, 30 May, 2013
Anonymous said…
Steve Soloman lives not too far away from us and we visited his garden for a Tamar NRM free lecture. We got our soil analysed for $20 as part of this lecture. Steve is a very intersting man indeed! ;). I grew smarter not harder. I chose eggplants that were more likely to ripen in our short growing season and chose the thin Japanese kind. I got so many eggplants I was begging my daughters to take them. Luckily they are in their "Korean" phase at the moment and eggplants apparently figure into that equation so they took lots. I loved them and there are still heaps on the bushes and they are showing no signs of letting up. I agree with your about the suburban garden. We lived on less than quarter of an acre in Riverside and couldn't grow a huge amount BUT the soil was magic compared to our soil out here...we just got 6 trailer loads of horse manure to enrich our soil and to build raised garden beds because the soil can't be dug here.
Friday, 31 May, 2013
Lanie said…
Wow. I didn't know this either! I, like Heather's Dad have thought that I am stuck with green tomato recipes. Thanks!
Friday, 31 May, 2013
Jo said…
Hi Lanie, hope you enjoy more red tomatoes next year! I can't say how satisfying it is to ask one the children to run down and get me a tomato from the laundry!
Friday, 31 May, 2013
Jo said…
Fran, I just bought Steve Solomon's new book, The Intelligent Gardener, which is full of his ideas on soil quality and nutrition. It is doing my head in. Something else to worry about! I would love to hear him talk one day, I imagine it would be fascinating.
Saturday, 01 June, 2013
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