First Tomatoes

The first 'maters are starting to turn red in the garden. They should be ready before Independence Day. We've had almost perfect growing conditions in the mid-Ohio Valley, so a bumper crop is quite possible...even the %$#^ing deer have decided to stop foraging in the tomato patch.

[Robin Garr]

One of your (generally speaking) neighbors, Charlie Hambly (sp?), who brings his wares down to Louisville, had some tomatoes today - they looked like early maturing hybrids, but still.

We've been having fantastic vine ripened tomatoes for the past month. Our local farmer has a technique. He plants them in the ground in his greenhouse, opens all the windows during the day if it is warm enough and we have some 90 degree weather in May, and closes them at night; and doesn't pick them until they are ripened on the vine. Enjoyed a big, luscious one tonight.

Dudes, grow your own.

A friend of mine has a small greenhouse and we enjoyed some of his tomatoes in February. That's still cheating!

[Robin Garr]

Dudes, grow your own.

Mary is all over that. But that being said, her heirlooms don't generally start ripening until the first or second week of July. In the past few years we've had some late-June outliers, but not this year.

The first tomato that set on my bush turned red, I think Wednesday. It's going to be high 90s all weekend, so maybe I'll have a Real Tomato in a day or two.

Dudes, grow your own.

So how do you grow your own if you live in the woods?

[Jenise]

We've had the warmest May-June ever, just incredible weather, and by Monday it's going to be 90 degrees here--unfrickingbelievable! But even then I won't see a ripe tomato for at least a month. Sigh. I'm so jealous of all of you!

We had an extremely hot May and an extremely wet June; it is a wonder that anything survived, but they did. We have a few cherry tomatoes on the vine, and much more coming along. It is true that we should grow our own, but in the meantime options like I described above are wonderful!