Cherry Tomatoes - You Can't Eat Just One
Pop-them-in-your-mouth cherry tomatoes replace potato chips in the summer.
When I first started growing cherry tomatoes from seed, I had visions of grandeur when it came to varieties. I dreamt of rainbow-colored salads and pasta dishes and of a land where my house was dotted with small bowls of the tiny treasures that I’d snack on at my leisure.
I've tried many varieties over the years and with great success, but the one cherry tomato I faithfully come back to is the perfectly round and cherry red Sweet 100. It is a reliably juicy fruit that is the perfect amount of sweet and tangy. The plant itself is indeterminate, which means that if you let it, it would keep growing. But in the Door County where the first hard freeze inevitably puts an end to most vegetables, it succumbs and dies off.
As for the “you can’t eat just one” rating…you can’t. I’ll mindlessly pop them into my mouth as I’m making dinner, or anytime I walk into my kitchen throughout the day. They replace my craving for salty chips, which makes them guilt-free. Nummm!
Beautiful cascades of tiny jewels.
I love that time of the year when I can go into my garden and snack on a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables. In this case, cherry tomatoes are front stage and center.
They are marvels of nature, much like our bees, in that they create a geometrically perfect formation. The pale little orbs start to pop out along the branches of the tomato vine in perfect unison. With plenty of sun, water, and love, they go from pale green to whichever mesmerizing color nature insists they will be. In our case, with Super Sweet 100s: cherry red.
Snack away!
As I mentioned earlier, “I dreamt of a land where my house was dotted with small bowls of the tiny treasures that I’d snack on at my leisure”. That’s not exactly how it is, but in my kitchen at any given time, there may be multiple bowls of the juicy snacks at hand.
But wait. There’s more!
After a long summer of prolific production, all good things must come to an end. Fall in Door County brings its first frost around the middle of October. Typically, I don’t wait for what’s to come: the hard freeze, which assuredly is the ultimate demise for a cherry tomato. Before this happens, I harvest almost all of the tomatoes on the plant.
The gift that keeps on giving.
Tomatoes, in particular, are the fruit that keeps on giving. If you pick them when they are green and store them properly in a cool, dark, and dry place, they will turn red. The darker green tomatoes do not ripen as well as the lighter ones, so I add those to the compost pile.
Storing tomatoes this way, gives me fresh tomatoes well into the beginning of December. They aren’t as tasty as a freshly picked tomato, but once added to dishes where they are part of the mix, such as stir fries or pasta dishes, it’s a nice reminder of the pleasantly warm and sunny days of summer.