saving tomatoes--question

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I read earlier this month about saving green tomatoes by picking off the vines, wrapping in paper and store. Someone was able to have tomatoes into Thanksgiving. How was this done? I picked all of our green due to early frost and wrapped all in paper. I checked them this weekend to make sure they weren't ripening yet and guess what? I have 6 that are red and ready to eat! Can someone please explain how this happens and will I really still have some to eat in Nov.?

Thanks, Stephanie in IA

-- Stephanie Wilkerson (stephanie.wilkerson@experian.com), October 16, 2001

Answers

Stephanie, I do believe that some types save better than others and that if you save a BUNCH in a cool place that some will last even until Christmas, depending on where you are located. I check mine each week and find a few ripened. I lose some, but still continue since I love to have them fresh like that rather than the grocery store cardboard.

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), October 16, 2001.

like any plant,, when it knows its dying, ,it will try to produce seed. Like picking a tomato,, it will continue to ripen,, to reproduce. Check them every day,, and if any starts to rot,, get rid of it quick, keeps the fruit flys down, ,and keeps it from spreading to the others. I picked a 30 gal cooler full of green tomatoes,, I didnt wrap each one, but I did loosly layer them with paper inbetween. I lost some I couldnt get to near the bottom,, but I was able to can an extra 15 quarts so far,, and now IM doing tomato sauce. The flavor wont be the same as ripe on the vine, but still better than store bought

-- stan (sopal@net-port.com), October 16, 2001.

Stephanie, If you really want Tomatoes for Christmas, you need to plant the tomatoes especially bred to store. I know that Burpee had one called LongKeeper that worked very well and now has one more that is supposed to keep better. You can store any green tomatoe but most ripen faster than these. So grow a few plants next year, and try it out. Growing tomatoes from seed is almost as easy as growing weeds!

-- Karen in Kansas (kansasgoats@iwon.com), October 16, 2001.

If you want to have a lot of them to ripen at once just put some apples close to them. As the apple rippens it puts off a gas that will ripen the tomatoes and it will keep potatoes from sprouting.

-- Mel Kelly (melkelly@webtv.net), October 16, 2001.

when we pick ours green, we put them in brown bags with a ripe apple or two in with them. every few days, we check and Fresh Tomatoes!

-- leslie in missouri (whomestead@hotmail.com), October 16, 2001.


Dang, I wish I would have know all this before I gave up on my tomatoes! I kept covering them hoping they would ripen and it just got too cold and I lost them all. I've heard everything from picking the entire vines and hanging them in a basement with tomatoes attached until they ripen to just letting them ripen.

I'll keep this one in mind for next year.

-- RNMOM (tegan@ida.net), October 16, 2001.


Ive hung cherry tomatos upside down till they ripen,, but the larger ones will fall off. First year Ive tried wrapping them,, it DOES work

-- stan (sopal@net-port.com), October 16, 2001.

I'm far too lazy (or maybe I just have too many things to do) to wrap each individual tomato. I pack my tomatoes in milk crates, about 3/4 full (so the ones on the bottom don't get squished) then put them in a dark, warm place. They ripen up over time. The larger tomatoes are more likely to ripen since this process causes some loss of water (the smaller tomatoes seem to simply shrivel away). I do go through them every few days (or so) and take out any that are going bad (I have to take out more tomatoes if the time interval has been longer, but there are only so many hours in a day). Of course, the end result of all this is that I've eaten tomatoes until they come out my ears, I've canned tomatoes, barbecue sauce, chili sauce, green tomato mincemeat, picalilli, and something else (I can't remember what at the moment) and I still have one more crate of tomatoes left. I think salsa is the next item on my list, but after that I'm out of ideas! And I have to admit, when frost took my tomato plants this year, I did a little dance!!!

-- Sheryl in Me (radams@sacoriver.net), October 17, 2001.

Would you share that green tomato mincemeat recipe? or all of them..

full of tomatoes here, too!

Cherylann

-- (idahocher@sisna.com), October 21, 2001.


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