Tomatoes going nuts

[pico]

Well, I went out of town for a few days, and when I returned, it was hot a few days and then rainy. I completely neglected my garden for over a week, and it was being semi neglected at least 2 weeks prior, so I am now about 3 weeks behind in weeding the garden. It looks completely overgrown. Perhaps this was a blessing, as I went out there today and discovered my tomatoes were perfect and extra ripe. Usually the birds get them, but the weeds had grown around them, completely hiding the good stuff. Once I cut my way to them and bagged them, I made my way to the corn, which turned out to be great too. My peppers were also ready, and so I now have an afternoon of cooking and canning. Anyway, I am finally getting some more from the garden, after the May and June harvest period.

Now I need to start thinking about the fall season planting, as the weather looks to be cooling off for a while. It will be my luck to plant cool season crops like mustard greens, cabbage, and broccoli, only to see it all crap out due to a heat wave. Anyway, I hope everyone else's garden is providing for them.

[Nu Kua]

That's interesting about your tomatoes. I have to rush mine to ripening towards the end of the season, before the fog rolls in. One way to do that is to withhold water.
I just trimmed them of all new flowers and tiny tomatoes, so the plant can put all its energy into developing and ripening the green fruit, and watered them well. Instead of watering them 2-3 times a week, it'll be once a week and not at all if it begins to get very foggy for stretches of days at a time.

[Sweet Freedom]

Lucky you, Pico! We have had such heat and drought that we have only had a handful of tomatoes ready. Several more are huge and green. Hopefully we will be getting some much needed rain followed by a bit of a cool down.

[pico]

We had very high temps here that ended about a week ago. Since then, it has rained much of the time, which perhaps contributed to the perfect tomatoes. I used all of the tomatoes minus one for salsa, which turned out great. I simply used a Ball brand salsa mix and added about a tablespoon of crushed chili peppers while boiling. The salsa has a sweet taste that follows with just enough heat. With my batch, I was able to make half a gallon, so not a huge amount, but it did not take too long. I would not want to petite dice 3 dozen tomatoes at a time anyway to make a larger batch.

NK... that is good info to have on forcing the green tomatoes to ripen. I used to pick them green and then have them sit in a bowl with apples... my great aunt showed me that method, and they would usually ripen in a couple of days.