Kids and tomatoes

Harvest tomatoes when they are ripe but still firm. To speed up the ripening process, you can place a few tomatoes in a brown paper bag. For best flavour, store them at room temperature; refrigerate only if fully ripe, and then only for a few days.

Topsy-turvy hanging tomatoes
Here's a conversation piece that sounds crazy but actually yields an abundance of cherry tomatoes. (You can also try this with plants that yield medium-sized fruit.) The plant grows upside down, a feat that will amaze your kids and their friends.

Cut a hole slightly larger than the diameter of the main stem of the plant in the bottom of a 20-litre plastic bucket. Carefully wrap the top of the plant in a cylinder made of newspaper and insert through the hole in the bucket, pointing the leaves toward the ground. Unwrap the newspaper, hang the bucket by its handle. Add approximately three centimetres of gravel to help anchor the roots, then fill the bucket with potting soil. As the tomato plant grows, its leaves will curl up toward the sun, but once it's loaded with fruit, the stems will hang straight down.

Fried green (or slightly pink) tomatoes
Here's a juicy, delicious way for you and your kids to enjoy an over-abundance of unripe tomatoes at the end of the growing season. Wash the tomatoes and pat them dry. Cut them into three-millimetre-thick slices, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Dip each slice in cornmeal and place on waxed paper. Heat some vegetable oil and fry the slices until golden brown. Drain them on paper towels and serve hot.

Related web sites
Seed Starting Tomatoes
www.savvygardener.com/Features

How to Grow the Tomato and 115 Ways to Prepare it for the Table
aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/plantanswers/

Canning and Freezing Tomatoes
www.ext.nodak.edu/extpubs/yf/foods/he175w.htm

Tomato Recipes To Preserve The Goodness Of An Abundant Harvest
aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/plantanswers/

Easy Gardening...Tomatoes
aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/extension/

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