Here in western Washington, the season has definitely taken a turn to autumn. Trees are showing brilliant colors. Wind storms are kicking up (and kicking trees over). Fog is settling in. Rain is falling and so are temperatures. As this happens, summer heat-loving food crops begin to wane.
Heat-lovers like tomatoes are about at their end. Rains are causing fruit to crack. Slugs are coming out to celebrate the cool, wet weather and invading ripe (and not-quite-ripe) fruit. Fungus is growing and stems are dying. So, its time to get out there and pull out plants. Pick through the remaining fruit. Anything that isn’t full of slugs or nibbled on by rodents may still be salvagable. Pick these fruit. Place them near other tomatoes that are ripe on your counter to encourage the stragglers to ripen up. Or, place a banana nearby to encourage ripening.
Another option is to make fried green tomatoes by dredging green slices in egg and cornmeal and frying them up. Or check your favorite recipe books for chutney that uses green tomatoes; there are a lot of them out there.
Dispose of the remaining plant waste in your yard waste bin. I prefer not to put these plants in my compost pile for fear of spreading any potential disease they may be harboring this late in the season.
And, what to do in place of these? Well, cover crops like Favas are a nice option. Or, leafy greens like chard and kale. Or, a trellis with snap peas. Or maybe some broccoli or cabbage. Keep an eye out for the slugs though. And, you may wish to get any peas or favas started indoors — just in case germination won’t take in the cool wetness of our early autumn.
