Looks Like an Easter Parade

I've been fussing about the wrong thing! Turns out there's a terrible tomato/potato blight back east, worsened by cooler weather. Our sunshiney days and 105 temperatures have blasted the shoulders of the fruit, but have not killed the plants.

I took a bundle of newsprint grocery ads out there to cushion the low-hanging tomatoes against the hot dirt, and to show them what a red tomato looks like. Last week I also made a bunch of bonnets to protect the green baby tomatoes which hadn't been burnt to death (yet). I used cardstock paper, cut out circles with a slash to the center, and fastened them with a staple around the nascent tomato like a little lampshade. On some of them I got fancy and cut scalloped edges and drew eyelet lace and other decorations. If we're going to rot, we'll rot in style.

I wanted to see if they'd work before I posted here. Happily, by keeping the sun off their heads, some tomatoes are ripening nicely so far. The Super Steak fruits ripen with a watermelon pink tinge and yellow (or white onion-skin sunscalded) shoulders; the other kind (whatever it is) is ripening with a more orange-red hue and a greeny upper half. Can't wait for a taste comparison! In the crisper drawer of the refrigerator I have a storebought Roma tomato, a deep red, very firm specimen which has sat there for nearly two weeks like a well-behaved rubber ball. Romas keep better than garden tomatoes, but sure don't taste like anything.

If all the hatted tomatoes survive, we are going to have more than we know what to do with. Come see us and bring chips: I see huge tubs of salsa in the future.