I just ate fresh tomatoes out of last summer's garden (Maine)

[jpak]

Before the first frost, I harvested all the green tomatoes and unripe hot peppers and laid them out in a box in my sun porch.

With all the BS going on, I sorta forgot about them and expected to find a mess of rotten veggies...

But I found a box full of ripe tomatoes and dried red peppers - woo hoo!

A few of the tomatoes were bruised, and some were a little dry in the skin, but most were perfect.

A pleasant change from my canned tomato quarantine diet

[Walleye]

1. Wow , neat idea

[magicarpet]

2. I'm up here in Androscoggin County, save me a tomato, I'll be right over.

[jpak]

4. Yah better be quick

I gots the quarantine scurvy and needs 'em bad...



:

[niyad]

3. How wonderful! What a great surprise. And treat!

I once thought that everybody knew the box trick, found out that many do not.

[jpak]

5. It was pure serendipity

But yah, it was a nice surprise.

[alittlelark]

6. Early October I hung 15 large outdoor plants upside down in the greenhouse

I have been harvesting nonstop since then. About 5% have rotted overall. They are now at the point where most have thick skins, but that just makes them easier to peel for sauce etc.

[jpak]

7. My Dad used to hang tomato plants in the kitchen windows

And we had fresh tomatoes right up to Christmas.

(My Mom was glad when they were gone)

[brush]

8. Nothing like eating a garden-raised tomato like an apple with a salt shaker in hand.

You can't get that real tomato taste from supermarket tomatoes.

[Atticus]

9. We save the last green tomatoes each year, set them in a cardboard box so they don't touch,

cover with a couple newspapers and then add another layer of smaller tomatoes.

It is best to select only unblemished green tomatoes with no breaks in the skin and of more or less normal shape.

The longest ours lasted was till after Thanksgiving. There are always one or two that "go bad", but most ripen just fine in our Dad cool basement pantry.

To have edible garden tomatoes this late is fantastic! You must have done something very right.

[UserNotFound]

10. I've grown tomatoes for a long time,

but I've never made the time or effort to do this. These were just "regular" varieties...as opposed to some judged to be "long keeper" varieties...?