Cold Tomatoes

I finally did some web research on growing tomatoes in colder weather. The news was not good.

For example, covering plants works well for nearly red tomatoes, but not as well for mature green ones. Though foliage may sometimes be saved, research shows that chilling injury on green fruit occurs at temperatures of 50 degrees and decay losses rise markedly on fruit exposed to 40 degrees F. Red ones well on their way to ripening tolerate colder temperatures.

And:

The shorter sun exposure shouldn't affect the growth too much (they'll get leggy if there's a real reduction in sunlight), but it definitely will reduce the developing sugars, resulting in a less sweet, almost sour flavor.

So I should probably give up on them.

We had a nice one-session FOCCUS session with a couple last night. Penny likes to provide a meal now when we have a couple over and she made some excellent portabella mushroom ravioli with a butter sage sauce. There were no issues that concerned us with this couple. We hope they have a long and happy life together.

Today our neighbors had an after-wedding shower for their son and daughter-in-law. Penny made fried ravioli and little twice-baked potatoes. Again she did a great job. On top of it all she’s felt good for 2 days straight.

We usually end up trashing the kitchen when any cooking is done but this time around we managed to do 2 major rounds of cooking and the kitchen is OK.

We’ve been driving Brie crazy. We have to squirt medicine down her throat twice a day and she has become weary of us. She spent most of today hiding from us under our bed. I couldn’t get her out. She finally came out around 1 or 2 PM and I promptly closed up all her hiding spots where I can’t extract her. When we looked for her to give her her medicine we still couldn’t find her. She was under a folded comforter in the sunroom. We gave her the meds and then lavished her with attention, brushing her and petting her. That is what we are doing to keep her calmer. It seems to work- she’s been with Penny all evening. Of course she knows she can’t hide. It’s going to get interesting at Thanksgiving when all the people are here and the dogs and we are still giving her medicine. She’s going to want to disown us.

Penny begins buying food for the holiday tomorrow. So grocery shopping is the main event on our Sunday calendar.

I talked to brother Lou today and we are all set to take him to the airport on Monday. He doesn’t know if he will be coming back here next year or not. As he says, it’s in God’s hands.