Tomatoes - how do you know if they will ripen?

Today it is still hot. It's been hot all summer, really stinking hot. But the garden has loved it.

 We actually have a garden. For the past three years we have had a grasshopper all-you-can-eat buffet. They have even eaten the garlic chives and sage down to the ground. Along with (waves arms in a huge circular motion) all this, it's been less than inspiring. I'm the first to champion the gardeners credo - "Well, next year..." 

 Actually, as I think about this, last summer I laid down as it was the summer after I witnessed a murder during a phone call. The summer before that, I was working at the job where I eventually heard the murder. So no gardens. 

 What even is time? 

 I have spent most of the last two days reading other people's blogs and thinking about writing. None of us know anymore what time is, I believe. 

 How is that the way we experience time has so much to do with seeing other people? It's almost like we developed in tribes or something, depending on each other? 

 But I digress, I wanted to pass on some Garden Heading into Fall wisdom about tomatoes.

 Your tomatoes are very likely done making fruit that you will actually harvest from the vine. 

Now, some gardens live to disprove such statements, and if your's is one of those, enjoy! 

 But for the rest of us, cut the top off the plant and remove any flowers. You want all the energy to go into plumping up the fruit that is on the vine. 

Because tomatoes are annuals, their one and only goal is to make seeds for the next generation. This will force the plant to focus on what is left, those fruit that are set. 

 The first frost warning is (hopefully) still six weeks away. Here are pictures of what you are looking for when you do your last tomato harvest. 

 This is a tomato without a star. These won't ripen normally.

This is a tomato with a star. It will ripen and be delicious.

I bring them all in, to be honest. I can't stand leaving them out in the cold. Mostly the true green toms just turn brown, then I throw them in the compost. But I give them the chance. 

 Sometimes we have the last of the summer tomatoes for Thanksgiving.

 This I haven't tried but there is good science to support putting the green tomatoes in a paper bag with apple or banana. They produce a gas that speeds ripening. 

 With the cherry toms, I will cut the plant at ground level and hang in basement. The little guys ripen or they don't. 

 I'm about to go have my favorite summer lunch - a luscious Cherokee Purple slices on Asiago Cheese toast. It's the best of summer in my world.