I Spy

Remember my post "There Are Bugs In My Bush?" Here are the little guys growing up. These were taken around the 4th of July.

Eat, drink, be merry, and get dirty!
Margie

Like Your BC Pills, Don't Skip a Day

6 pounds of tomatoes, mostly from that one monster bush.

I didn't pick my tomatoes one day, and this was the haul I got the following day.

For every 5 tomatoes I put on my salad each day for lunch, I find myself picking at least a dozen tomatoes.

Oh, and educational moment: you do not need to wait until your tomatoes are red on the vine to pick them. Pick them when you see them start to "blush." Unlike commercial tomatoes which are injected to force them to turn colors when they are not actually ripe, once your tomatoes start blushing, they are ripening and will continue to turn red on their own. I rinse mine off and leave them in a bowl so I can just pop 'em in my mouth as a snack. You can also leave them on a windowsill. It will take about a day or two for them to fully ripen.

The reason you want to pick them before they are fully ripe are: 1. It triggers the plant to produce more tomatoes more frequently, 2. You are less likely to miss some and end up with rotten tomatoes (I have not had a single rotten tomato), 3. Bugs and other pests are going to find the tomatoes before you.

The blush I am talking about is when you just start to see a yellowy-peachish coloring on the green. You can see some of them above.

Eat, drink, be merry and get dirty (and eat A LOT of tomatoes!)
Margie