Winter weather and tomatoes.....?

[RBak]

I know some of you guys already have "winter" weather and are having to deal with it, even as I type this, but last night Fall fell with Mucho Gusto here in the Basin.

I woke up this morning to temperatures of 20* with my window open and the fan on...my old nose was cold, and I was very thankful for having a warm bed at that very moment.

But, there was no signs of frost. I mean the heavy white icy stuff that typically accompanies such drastic overnight temperature drops.
In fact, although the tomato vines are in sad, sad, shape this morning, the green tomatoes, with which they are still covered, "seem" okay and that's my question to all you Farmers and Gardner's....are they really okay, if I do something with them today and tomorrow????

This past week my wife canned several more pints of Green Pickle Relish and I have really developed a taste for this stuff and, of course, I would like to use up what tomatoes are left....if my tomatoes are still okay.

Should I forget it and just pull them out of the ground, or is it possible to save the Tomatoes that's left?

BTW: I hope I got this in the right place.

Russ...

[oneokie]

If there was any wind during the night, frost would not have formed on any surfaces. Did you notice any skim ice on water? Dog bowls, water troughs??

As to the tomatoes, watch them today for color changes. If they get a greasy/watery look to them, they have suffered freeze damage. Also, if the vines had heavy, thick foliage, some of the maters might still be useable. YMMV

[RBak]

Did you notice any skim ice on water? Dog bowls, water troughs??

Nope, I didn't notice any. I went back out to look for other signs but the temperature has already got back up into the mid 50's, and I don't see anything other than the fact that the vines themselves look even worse than they did early this morning...
I pulled one nice green tomato, sliced it a couple of times, and I didn't see any ice but they may well have that 'shinny' look in the meat.

I'm not real sure what I should be seeing, because I've never worried about saving them this late in the year before....I was actually always kinda glad to see 'em go away in the past.
But this particular crop of tomatoes were somewhat special, in the sense that we have canned an exceptional amount of Tomatoes, between Spaghetti Sauce, Salsa, canned Tomatoes, Tomato juice, Green Tomato Relish, I'm sure we have done up well over 100 qts..... plus several meals of fried Green Tomatoes served with Walleye.

I may have to junk what's left and just forget it.
Later today I'll have another look and either pick 'em, or pull 'em up....but they sure won't make it through another night like last night.

Thanks for the advise.

Russ

[Johnch]

I just had our first frost
So I picked all the decent red and green tomatoes

I will eat the red ones in the next few days and the green ones
I will take a few out of the frig every few days and set them in the south window

It takes a few days
But they ripen and normaly tast pretty good

Not as good as vine ripened , but a ton better than the wall paper paste hot house ones sold in the chain storres

John

[RBak]

Well I "saved" a few but the majority are gone....

We had Fried Green Tomatoes for Supper, and if they were hurt, I was not smart enough to see it. They tasted just fine.

I have about a bushel or so fairly nice that I picked, and I left more than that on the vine. It seemed to me that those getting close, or fairly close, to being ripe were the ones most affected..and when I sliced the green ones for supper the reason for that observation seemed fairly clear. The ripper the tomato gets, the thinner the outside skin becomes, or so it seemed.
So all was not lost, at least I learned a little something.

Anyway, my child bride and I discussed this a just minute and the conclusion was to toss the rest and not worry about them, she asked why in the world was I was worried about it, as it seemed more a matter of pride to me, and to just get it out of my head.
After fifty years of marriage I have found her to be right on more than just one occasion, so I suspect she just may very well be right again. For some unknown reason, it now seems I did want to save 'em if I could. LOL Silly old me!

Russ

[legend]

we always put the garden to bed the night before our first hard freeze.we pick all the tomatoes and the green ones are ziplocked and into the freezer they go for chilis and stews all winter.the slightly colored ones go into paper bags in our basement....some will ripen...some will rot so we watch closely.

we are close to our first freeze of the year,and,its a sad time for me.but,we had a bumper crop garden this year. here in wyoming the soil is real bad with lots of clay,and its a struggle fighting grasshoppers also.

[Dark Helmet]

Chicken feed?

[oneokie]

Chicken feed?

Fish bait too.

[RayinNH]

If I'm not mistaken you can just pull the vine out with the tomatoes attached. Hang them in a barn or garage, check daily or so...Ray