(c) 2013 Martha McLemore
In early September, on the warning advice of a neighbor that there was to be a killing frost that evening, I picked every tomato on the plants at the Neas House. Our buildings and grounds maintenance man had told me to take as many tomatoes as I wanted from the four vines he put in. He wasn't going to harvest anymore of them.
Don't know where my mind was that day, but as I left work that (very hot) afternoon, I remembered the neighbor's warning. I stripped the vines bare. No frost that evening, nor for any evening since. Dumb move.
Must have picked close to a bushel of them, the majority of them still green. Over the next few days, a few of the less green ones ripened, and were promptly eaten. Very good flavor, juicy; a welcome treat from those cardboard things in the grocery stores. Then, for some reason, the ripening slowed to a trickle...finally stopped.
I left the tomatoes in my car, which gets warm during the day. Thought the heat might spur the ripening again. Well, it did - or, something did. A fortnight ago, a half dozen ripened, seemingly overnight. A couple of days later, had even more; then fifteen or so the next morning. I brought the basket of fruit inside last Sunday, hoping the lack of sunlight might stop the process. Didn't happen. I knew I couldn't eat that many tomatoes before they went bad, and Daughter was tomatoed-out. What shall I do?!
My favorite bakery/café/coffee-shop makes these delicious breakfast pastries they call egg soufflés. Their newest one has roasted tomatoes with feta cheese filling. Ever-ripening tomato quandary solved. I roasted the suckers! In the photo above are a few of the remaining tomatoes not destined for the oven (about three times that are sliced and roasting even as I'm typing this.) The platter holds the first batches (boy, they cook down a lot!), what's left after I sampled them. Oh, they are so good on toast with yogurt cream cheese, let me tell you!
The green leafy stuff is Greek columnar basil. I'll add that to some of the roasted tomatoes for a fresh marinara. Minced Greek-style black olives might be a nice addition.
Tomorrow morning I'm going to try my hand at the tomato-feta soufflé for breakfast. If it's any good, might have another for lunch; then supper, too.
But next year, I'll wait until late October to pick the green ones.
