Cold snap

On Thursday, daytime temps brushed 80F. Then the cold front moved through, and the bottom fell out. Temps in the 50s, with daytime highs in the 40s over the weekend. Threat of frost along the lake, and hard freeze inland.

That meant that I needed to do something about the tomatoes still on the vine. I hadn’t felt the push to harvest to this point because temps were still reasonable and there weren’t enough reds to do anything with–no batches of marinara or crushed tomatoes this year. But there were a fair number of Black Cherry left, as well as a few largish fruits on each of the Italian plants and the Arkansas Traveler. So last night, I donned a barn coat, dug the snips out of the garage, and undertook the last tomato picking of 2012.

I filled a largish box–18x12x7 inches–with whatever tomatoes looked decent. There were a few reddening bigs, many greenies that may or may not ripen, and a bunch of ripe Black Cherry that may wind up in a batch of scalloped tomatoes even though they’re the Wrong Type for a casserole. Too watery. Maybe if I add more bread crumbs and bake a little longer….

Autumn has descended. Leaves are turning at speed–lots of yellow and gold so far. Half the backyard is covered. My favorite begonias are withered, and the hydrangea are browning. Sparrows and finches are hitting the feeders hard and stripping the last of the seeds from the bolted lettuces and chard.

Guess I need to set up an appointment for the furnace guy to do his annual check.