Tomatoes are fruits! Botanically, they are not vegetables. Just make sure to check them daily for ripeness. If you buy unripened tomatoes, you can speed up the ripening process by wrapping them in a sheet of newspaper and keeping them on the kitchen counter for a few days. Therefore, locally grown tomatoes may taste better because they’re allowed to ripen naturally. This process inhibits the development of natural flavor and may result in tasteless tomatoes To make them red before selling, food companies spray them with artificial ethylene gas.

When tomatoes start to ripen, they produce a gaseous hormone called ethyleneĬommercially grown tomatoes are harvested and transported while still green and immature. This is actually the second load we’ve received from them, and there’s a promise of a third to come soon! Here is a gift from one of our friends that went into making the recipes in this post. (It’s a good thing we have good friends who are good gardeners, because I don’t seem to have much luck growing tomatoes. It’s almost like Christmas when your friend has a bumper crop of tomatoes, can’t possibly use them all, and presents you with a load of them. This is also the time when you find out who your true friends are. My mother used to say that she would bring the salt shaker out to the garden, because she couldn’t wait to bite into them!

Yes!! It’s Here! It’s Homegrown Tomato Season!Īll year long, as we suffer through dull, tasteless Winter tomatoes – we can’t wait for late summer when the homegrown tomatoes in our area ripen up for our enjoyment.

Potato cooking companions