Yes, Bonnie. The amount of time the fruit stays on the vine increases the sweetness, it also becomes softer to the touch and deeper in color. The tomato is a fruit that has seeds inside. The plant knows that the ripening seeds are close to maturity, during this time the tomato starts to color. The color intensifies as the fruit ripens. The fruit is ready to pick when you clasp it and it comes freely off of the plant. Tomatoes continue to ripen after being picked. Let a few get more strongly colored before you pick them and see if you notice a flavor difference. I think the taste will be much more palatable. I'm growing several cukes this season but the ones I've already harvested are "Green Fingers" which are picked small--about four inches long. They are AWESOME!!! Here is a link that might be useful: Green Fingers

Congratulations, Dorothy, on the ripe tomatoes and the real beginning of the flood of tomatoes that soon will follow! Tomato harvest season is my favorite season, and I like it best when it is a really long season. We've mostly been harvesting Early Girl, Chocolate Cherry, SunGold, Terenzo, Lizzano, Little Sun and some random Yellow Cherry that grew from seeds labeled JD's Special C-Tex but which clearly are not JD's Special C-Tex at all. Usually SunGold is the earliest spring-planted cherry type here, but Chocolate Cherry, Lizzano and Terenzo all beat it this year. Loving tomatoes as we do, we've enjoyed every last one of them. I know you're enjoying yours too. Our early plantings of squash and beans have paid off big-time so I'm glad I took the chance and planted them early. My cuke plants are climbing, but haven't bloomed yet. We're harvesting oodles of zucchini and yellow summer squash, and so far have seen no sign of SVBs or squash bugs. Knock on wood! The lack of rainfall worries me too, and we're starting to have little grassfires popping up here and there, which worries me even more. Fires are about the last thing in the world that are a concern for us here in May of most every year. Our relative humidity is dropping into the 20s in the afternoons, but I prefer that to the kind of humidity we had in previous weeks. Our high temps continue to overachieve, and I don't like that. Our forecast yesterday was for 86 and we hit 91 at our house. Today's forecast is for 88 and we're already at 87. We have a slim chance of rain next week. I think it is a 20% chance one day and a 30% chance the next, but that's still a few days out and I'm not holding my breath waiting for rain to fall. Our broccoli crop was better than our sugar snap pea crop, but neither was great and I feel like the space I used for them was wasted space. The cabbage is OK. I think the onions, potatoes and carrots will be just fine. So, it looks like this year was pretty hard on most above-ground cool-season crops, but not so rough on the cool-season crops whose edible parts grow below the ground. That means I will think long and hard about how much space I devote to cool-season crops next year. At a grassfire about 5 miles south of us yesterday, I saw bazillions of grasshoppers about 3/4" long. I was not happy to see them. They were all over every single blade of prairie grass. Seeing them sent a chill up my spine. I have not seen them here near our house in large numbers, but knowing they are present in large numbers just a few miles away sets off alarm bells ringing in my head. I hope they were present in such large numbers because they were fleeing the fire, but they really weren't moving very much, so I think they may not have been fleeing...just sitting around eating grass while the fire burned a few yards away. I have seen all kinds of bugs this year that I usually don't see, and the potato bugs are entertaining us as they creep around the garden looking for potatoes. I've seen potato bugs on tomatoes, peppers, catnip, snap peas, broccoli and now on the zucchini. They clearly must have emerged from last year's potato beds, but this year's potatoes are growing about 150' away and they can't find them. Of course, I squish the CPBs when I find them. Our "Early Sunglow" corn is participating in the trend towards early harvesting. We usually harvest it right around Memorial Day, but I think it likely will be ready to harvest next week. The coons have been prowling around the yard and garden at night, and if that is not a sign the corn is almost ripe, then I don't know what it. Dawn

Jay, I'll be anxious to hear how that Mr. Bruno does for you. I recall when that seed was offered on the tomato board. Looked like a big beauty. BTW, I think I can get some of those CP PL seeds if you have any trouble contacting the others. :) Anxious to hear how the Anana's Noire does for you too. The only variety that I lost and didn't have a replacement for after the hail was Ugly, but I can try that next year. Sungold was nearly defoliated, but you wouldn't know that today. :) Spears Tennessee Green, which I got from Alan has a mater forming. I was kinda worried with it being an 80 DTM mater, but I got all the later season ones I dared to try in the pots early in May and so far so good. I thought perhaps you would like our happy little crew. A few months ago Digit started a thread about what RMG was. Not specifically a geographical area, but more the climate and our approach to the challenges was what we thrashed about. :) We have a unique type of growing climate and season that kinda leaves us out of so many discussions elsewhere. And you definitely fit the profile where you are. :) And be sure to chime in on the Who's Here in 2007 thread that Skybird started. We need to count you and anyone else who has just joined us amongst our members. :)

So we were out picking yellow squash yesterday. I picked one, turned around, and repo dog did her best "I'm a good girl, see how good I sit, now please feed me what you have!" --waggy tail and all. I said, "Are you really serious? You want to eat yellow sqash? *waggy tail*. So I gave her a yellow squash. She ate it. Then later she ate my cantaloupe rind. she is a weeeeeird dog. :)