The beginning of August means long hot summer days here in Southern Oregon. Occasionally, the summer heat is overwhelming but it also means it is time for two of our favorite pastimes: swimming in the river and eating tomatoes! Since it is tomato time, we thought we should share some of our hot tips for hot summer tomato harvests. 

Pick your tomatoes from the bottom to the top of the plant. This will be easy as they ripen from bottom to the top of the plant. If you have been watching your plants grow like we do, then you might have noticed that the first tomatoes to start to form are at the bottom of the plant. The plant will continue to grow up your trellis and produce flowers and more fruit.

Tomatoes can be harvested as soon as there is a little bit of color on the bottom side of the fruit. Generally, when the fruit is green with a pink blush color forming then you know you can pick it. Tomatoes ripen really well on the counter. Picking tomatoes before they are red means you will not damage the soft fruit when you pick them.
If you accidentally pick a tomato before it has any color and is fully green, do not worry! Fried green tomatoes are very delicious and you can also make fun salsa with green tomatoes.

Pick your tomatoes often. This is a pretty good rule with a lot of summer vegetables. The more you pick the fruit the more the plant will keep trying to reproduce. The main goal of the plant is to make seed. When you harvest the fruit you are harvesting the seeds so the plant will keep growing more fruit. This leads to much more food for you to eat from your garden. Beans, peas and zucchini are other great examples of things that the more you pick the more you get to eat. 

After you harvest your tomatoes, wipe them off with a dry cloth and remove the green stem. It is a lot easier to clean tomatoes when they are on the firm side. This way you will not damage them. Fruit flies love tomato juice so any small puncture or bruise you make could lead to the fruit rotting more quickly. 

Eat them! Tomatoes are super versatile; they are excellent fresh, dried and preserved.

Last but not least, after your incredible effort harvesting tomatoes from your garden, treat yourself to a cool dip in the river. If you do not have a river nearby a pool, a pond or a hose will do. 

Happy Harvesting!