Dear KCSA community,
There are six pick-ups left for our full and box shares, and three pick-ups for our partial shares. Where did all the time go?
As most members know, our u-pick items have been magically disappearing from the board over the last few weeks. This has been partially due to the weather, but also because we need to sow some winter cover crop. We have had three light frosts already this season, and although there is no hard frost predicted in the 10-day forecast, summer crops such as tomatoes, peppers, tomatillos, basil and cut flowers have run their course. Our perennials, on the other hand (i.e., herbs and blackberries), should continue until it gets proper cold but in a limited supply.
I’ve read that it has been a tough tomato year in PA. It has been a year of extremes. A late frost in spring, lengthy dry spells followed by torrential rains in a hot and humid summer and then early frosts in fall have taken their toll. Although we can mitigate dry spells with our irrigation system, we have faced the other issues mentioned….if I do say so myself…rather successfully! Plus, if you remember, we lost all our heirloom transplants in spring!
Now I must confess, this has been in part down to having covered growing spaces. The abundance of green tomatoes (and peppers) left on the plants are evidence that it has been a strange year. It is a little frustrating, as even in the greenhouse, these won’t vine ripen in time. However, we have harvested them, so if members keep the green tomatoes and peppers that they will be getting in their share over the next two weeks on a counter top or pantry (not the fridge), they may ripen off vine.
To speed this process up, you can put them in a paper bag with an apple. Apples release a lot of ethylene gas as they ripen, which encourages other ethylene emitting fruit, like tomatoes, to ripen quicker. In fact, this is how most tomatoes are ripened commercially. They are harvested when they are green and then gassed in a warehouse. It makes them much easier to transport over long distances. Unfortunately, there is a trade off on taste as there needs to be about a 40% blush on the tomatoes before they are picked to maintain their maximum taste levels. Alternatively, you could try Green Fried Tomatoes.
Cheers,
Andrew
