Amazing tomato!!!

Almost unbelievable – I picked this little yellow guy back on August 15th! I’m sure it was at a hard green stage when I picked it, so it probably will be very much lacking in flavor, but still… how many home-grown tomatoes will last for half a year without any special storage?!?!

I remember the picking date because our first killing frost came on August 17th . When I heard the weather prediction warnings two days earlier, I went out and picked all tomatoes, ripe and green, and put them down in the basement. The temperature down there is pretty consistent with the rest of the house – 67-68°F year round. So it’s not like some special storage conditions. Basically it’s room temperature. I decided to go ahead and cut it open before it shriveled or rotted (or got eaten) like the rest.

The flesh was very thin and the seed cavities had big air pockets in them, but the seeds themselves looked mostly good and the gel around them was pretty juicy also. Before squeezing the seeds into a little plastic cup, I had to see what kind of flavor this 6 month old tomato would have. Well, I can’t say it would’ve have been the BEST ever salad tomato or slicer for a sandwich, but would you really expect that? Surprisingly…  it did have a nice tangy “umami” tomato flavor and was juicy enough that it would have been at least acceptable. Amazing!