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Tomato harvest is here:

• Ripe cherry tomatoes can鈥檛 be beat. Pop in your mouth often — if left too long on the vine they will split.
• Full-size tomatoes like Early Girl and Celebrity should be ready for harvest if they were planted by mid-June; exceptions are longer maturing 80-day plus varieties including heirlooms like Black Krim and Brandywine.
• Perfect vine-ripened tomatoes have a texture somewhere between soft and firm. If picked too early they can be less sweet; too late and the flavor is flat. Generally when a tomato is glossy, even colored (with some exceptions) and releases easily from the stem, it is ripe. Tomatoes continue to ripen after harvest, so there is some wiggle room.
• Determinate-growing tomato plants are more compact and the fruits have a concentrated period of ripening — three weeks or so.
• Indeterminate-growing tomato plants grow tall and wide and will continue to grow until halted by frost. Fruits are produced on older, lower branches and ripen first. If they are just a bit soft when squeezed, it抖阴ap time to harvest. Gently twist, turn and take. Use scissors if needed.
• Heirloom tomato plants can be determinate or indeterminate in growth habit. 聽Heirloom means the tomatoes are genetically unchanged for 50聽years or more. They range in colors and shades from green, pink, purple, yellow, browns, stripes, black and red. Many lack a consistent round shape, but flavors are outstanding — a pleasant balance of acid and sugar. Heirlooms ripen before they completely turn color, so harvest early. Use scissors instead of twisting from the vine so the fruit is gently handled.
• Be ready to harvest. Eat, share, donate and have your canner, juicer or freezer bags prepped to go.
• It抖阴ap easy to donate extra produce. Produce for Pantries will match you with shelters or hunger relief organization close to you. More information can be found at聽聽

Preserving the harvest

• An abundant fruit or vegetable crop is what we hope for each summer, but when there鈥檚 too much, what are your options?
• The easiest and most appreciated is to donate extras to family, friends and food pantries.
• The county of Denver allows fresh produce and cottage foods to be sold from home residences. Permits, rules, best practice information and foods allowed to be sold can be found at聽
• Putting up or preserving the harvest for homegrown taste later this winter is also an option. Not growing your own? Purchase in-season fruits or vegetables at farmer鈥檚 markets or grocery stores and preserve for later use.
• Always choose top quality, disease-free and best tasting fruits and vegetables for preserving.
• Match the crop with the preservation method that works best for you and always follow safe handling and processing procedures.
• Freezing vegetables: The general rule prior to freezing vegetables is to blanch them for a short period. This helps prevent loss of color, flavor and texture. Blanching requires boiling water to briefly scald the vegetable. Blanching times vary per vegetable.
• Vegetables that can be blanched then frozen include: beans (green, snap, wax, lima, butter, pinto), cauliflower, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, peas, carrots, kohlrabi, rhubarb, summer squash, sweet corn, tomatoes and peppers. Fully cook beets, pumpkins, winter squash and sweet potatoes before freezing.
  Vegetables that don鈥檛 freeze well: cabbage, cucumbers, celery, cress, endive, lettuce, parsley and radish.
• Freezing fresh fruits: Wash, stem, dry and freeze on cookie sheets first, then put into freezer bags the following: blueberries, blackberries, huckleberries, elderberries, gooseberries, strawberries, raspberries, currants and rhubarb (technically a vegetable, used as fruit).
• Drying removes the moisture from food so bacteria, yeast and mold won鈥檛 grow and spoil the food. Crops that dry well include apples, peaches, pears, tomatoes, grapes plums and more.
• Canning food using boiling water means sterilizing it first and then keeping it sterile. Hot pack canning is filling jars with precooked hot food prior to processing. Raw pack is filling jars with raw, unheated food prior to processing. Canning is used for high acid foods including tomatoes, pickles, sauerkraut, peaches, pears, apricots, plums, lemons, gooseberries and blackberries. Additional boiling time needs to be added for our altitude.
• Steam pressure canning: A steam pressure heavy kettle with lid, safety valve, vent and pressure gauge is used to process low acid foods to a temperature of 240 degrees. Additional pressure will be needed for high altitudes. Low-acid foods include okra, carrots, beets, turnips, green beans, asparagus, lima beans, peas and corn.
• Pickling is any food, vegetable or meat preserved in vinegar or brine.
• Fermentation: A fruit or vegetable is cured in a salt or water brine for a week or longer. This process alters its color, flavor and texture. No vinegar is added, which helps the food produce lactic acid which preserves the food and acts as a probiotic.

Food Preservation Resources

• Food Preservation Methods and How Tos from Colorado State University Extension: target=publications#pres
• National Center For Home Food Preservation:

Tomato Event

• Are your tomatoes extra tasty this season? Enter them in the annual Taste the Tomato competition held in Boulder at Gateway Park Fun Center on Aug. 27 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Also learn about growing tomatoes and seed saving techniques. More info:

More gardening tips from Betty Cahill at聽