(Wacky) Jardin Tomato Harvesting

Jardin this year was very generous in its tomato crop. Last year, I kept aside seeds from some tomatoes I tried and liked, and had three plants going.

But the compost soil was spurting tomato plants all over jardin. They were growing within and in between the vegetable planters. They climbed, flowered and yielded lots of tomatoes.

Unfortunately, only a handful turned red. As the rain and cold temperatures approached, dozens of jardin tomatoes faced one of two fates: rotting on the plant or turning into fried green tomatoes.

But wait, said know-it-all gardner, let's pick them up and  ripen them in the warmth of somerville kitchen.

And with no boxes, bags or artificial light, a wacky harvesting project begun.

Tomatoes lined up on somerville kitchen's window ledges; covering close to 5 meters of those ledges.

Every day, tomatoes were inspected. Those (very few) rotting were composted.

Those starting to ripen were moved to the darkest ledge while the still-green ones were left to absorb as much light and sun as our Fall weather is giving us.

Day after day, green started turning into red.

In less than three weeks, there were enough tomatoes to be consumed, with an ongoing supply replacing any that are used, gifted or stolen by cats for a sweet morning nap.

Wacky or not, who cares, somerville kitchen is enjoying freshly ripening tomatoes way into the freezing days, using only window ledges.