The Conservative Cave
Current Events => The DUmpster => Topic started by: franksolich on August 07, 2008, 06:01:11 AM
-
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=246x9787
Okay, in keeping with my practice of never making merry of the predicaments of primitives in the gardening forum on Skins's island, I offer this, in hopes that someone here can solve the dilemma:
MuseRider Donating Member (1000+ posts) Thu Aug-07-08 12:39 AM
Original message
The worst possible timing, please help!
We have to leave town to visit a friend who is ill. We are going to be gone for 8 days. I have close to 100 tomatoes that will most likely come ripe while we are gone, many many more for later thankfully. What do I do with them? I have a house/farm sitter but she is working and then has to come out here and take care of all the animals. I doubt she will want to do much and even so she will not be able to eat them all.....
I have never picked green tomatoes. Would it be a bad thing to pick the ones I think will ripen while away? What do I do with them? Will they ripen? Can I still can them later without a big decrease in the flavor?
Arghhhhh, I am so proud of them and now this. Still, we must go tomatoes or not.
Dover Donating Member (1000+ posts) Thu Aug-07-08 04:57 AM
Response to Original message
1. If you have a local Master Gardener program or just a garden club
You might speak to them and suggest that they offer some to a local food bank as further incentive.
A very good group to know anyway, and usually very helpful. Don't know what state you live in, but
maybe this will help or you can ask your county extension agency for Master Gardener contact info:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=master+gardener+pr...
Or ask a friend/neighbor.
Blue Gardener Donating Member (1000+ posts) Thu Aug-07-08 06:25 AM
Response to Original message
2. Food bank was my first thought as well
Maybe they have someone who will come out and pick them.
It's been franksolich's observation--not to make fun of the plight of the poor, though, seriously--that patrons of food banks prefer chips and dips and sodas and doughnuts and cookies and candy, to fresh fruits and vegetables.
-
Lets see here....
1-She seems unwilling to let the person taking care of the animals take care of a few tomatoes.
2-Over ripe tomatoes take care of themselves....they rot.
3-Spend $10 in gas to gather $2 worth of tomatoes for the poor....that's real smart, sounds like a government idea.
4-Just pick'em green, put'em in a box, line the bottom with newspapers, put in a layer of tomatoes, place a few sheets of newspaper over the first single layer of tomatoes and add another layer of tomatoes and a few sheets of newspaper etc. until you have picked all those of proper size, place under bed or in a closet. They'll stay green for quite a while. Remove a few everyday and put in window to ripen........works real well in the fall for saving those last few before the frost gets'em.
-
Frank you're right the food banks and shelters.They through out many pounds of fruits and vegetables. My family has taken produce to both. But if you hang around after supper just to see what goes in the trash you would be amazed. JohnnyReb I've tried your ideal, it work great, you could keep them all winter.
I've cooked fried green tomatoes, they're pretty good. I love green tomato relish with red beans. Good eats.
-
Lets see here....
1-She seems unwilling to let the person taking care of the animals take care of a few tomatoes.
2-Over ripe tomatoes take care of themselves....they rot.
3-Spend $10 in gas to gather $2 worth of tomatoes for the poor....that's real smart, sounds like a government idea.
4-Just pick'em green, put'em in a box, line the bottom with newspapers, put in a layer of tomatoes, place a few sheets of newspaper over the first single layer of tomatoes and add another layer of tomatoes and a few sheets of newspaper etc. until you have picked all those of proper size, place under bed or in a closet. They'll stay green for quite a while. Remove a few everyday and put in window to ripen........works real well in the fall for saving those last few before the frost gets'em.
Thanks for that tip. I shall use that for this season's green tomatoes.
-
I've cooked fried green tomatoes, they're pretty good. I love green tomato relish with red beans. Good eats.
You know, that reminds me of a sight I observed once, but whether in Russia or Ukraine, I no longer remember (it's probably in my notes of the sojourn).
The workers and peasants in the socialist paradises were big, really big, on tomatoes.
Ate them up; couldn't ever get enough of them.
One time, I bought some green tomatoes, the idea being they'd be red in a few days.
It was like flashing a crucifix in front of a vampire.
I was startled, really startled, at the violence of the reaction.
I never learned why they didn't care for green tomatoes.
It must have been a cultural thing; these same people looked upon me with Great Suspicion because I quaffed down milk whenever it was available (the quantity of milk under socialism varies considerably). It was as if I was swallowing liquid cyanide. Another American, from New York, whom I met later, had had the same experience.
-
Well, Frank I'm not Russia or Ukraine, just southern born American. But family history is Scandinavian,Native American, Germany and Irish.
It may have been the method of preparation. :-)