I'm gone for a weekend of tomato related and other not so fun festivities and decided to post the tomato picking lecture mostly just to see what response this gets and because I wrote it over a month ago.
Here it is.
Since many are in a tomato harvest, I'm going to explain stuff about ripening. You might not like it, but FBGs are supposed to know things.
Tomatoes are climacteric fruit. This means they ripen on their own if removed from the plant during or after a certain maturity stage. At that stage, the tomato has received all it needs or wants from the plant and has formed a membrane blocking all but a little unnecessary water. Water gets through only when the soil is over-saturated and the plant needs to use the fruit as a reservior. This can crack the fruit and dilute the flavor. The fruit is just hanging there requiring nothing more of the plant.
The green ripened tomatoes we curse in grocery stores for watery taste and mealy texture are supposed to be picked at the "mature green stage"; then they're gassed with ethylene to force ripening, which primarily forces "exterior coloring", ripening the tomato from the outside in, rather than inside out (as nature designed), resulting in store bought tasteless tomatoes. They are pretty though.
This mature green stage is when the fruit has (a) reached full size and (b) the blossom end has developed a pale star. Some 80 - 90% of tomatoes at the market are picked at this stage or worse, the "immature green stage", where size is right but the pale star has not formed. No matter how either of these are treated, they will not ripen to full potential, but they sure are easy to handle, package, ship, and store for weeks until they look good to eat. A good tip is to never refrigerate them and give them a few counter or cupboard days at room temp to let the insides catch up to the outside, if possible. You never know if it was picked mature or immature unless you try.
I'll concede that lab tests have proven "mature green" tomatoes carefully monitored in the absence of light at ideal temps, humidity, and gas levels, ripen to the same quality as those picked red ripe off a sun soaked plant. One problem is no facilities practice those exacting expensive ripening measures (though they do go to great lengths in their gas chambers), and harvesting operations are realistically based on size not stage, meaning immature greens, which can never ripen properly (even in a lab), are as common as mature greens in our grocery stores.
The rest of the fresh maters in the store are "vine ripe", which doesn't mean what most people think it means. Most of them are ripened on the vine but not on the plant. The vine/truss/cluster is removed from the plant while holding mostly green tomatoes, then it all gets gassed like, and usually with, the others discussed above --thus, they're ripened "on the vine" which adds a little weight to what you pay for. Read those labels carefully and you may begin to chuckle. Many that appear to be "vine ripe" really are (im)mature greens and the wording, while clever, gives them away.
True 'vine ripe' (even though not ripened on the plant) are better than the immature and mature greens because in order to be labeled 'vine ripe' they're required to be picked at the next stage, the breaker stage, or what some farmers refer to as first blush. Not all "vine ripened" are attached to the vine (that was removed from the plant). They merely need to be picked at the breaker stage to qualify. Why? Technically, climacteric fruit at or past breaker will ripen as nicely as any left on the plant, so the designation is fairly accurate. Fruit picked earlier could not truthfully be called vine ripened. Still most consumers believe they are buying tomatoes that were picked red not green. They're wrong.
So why don't vine ripened supermarket tomatoes taste as good as backyard and farmer's market produce? Two primary reasons. One is the variety of the maters. Commercial cultivars have endured decades of selective breeding isolating disease resistances, heavy yields, meat hardness and skin toughness for mechanical harvesting and handling abuse, extended shelf life, appearance, etc. Most of this genetic work has been at the expense of flavor, though there are a few good tomatoes to be had in regular markets, smaller tomatoes, grape types for sweetness, the bigger cherries for quality open field taste and Camparis (which are the best major market maters out there and it isn't close, just expensive). None of the main crop large tomatoes in the major markets are worth a crap, genetically speaking. Some good ones are starting to get through in major urban areas on a seasonal basis for a premium price, but not as a main crop. The second reason is the gas ripening process hurries a mater that would be fine if left to ripen on its own (post breaker). That's what this post turned essay is all about, btw.
Here's a chart worth a quick look.
The first two are immature and mature green. I would never pick them. The next two are breaker 1 and breaker 2 (first blush). I pick a lot of my larger tomatoes at first blush. They move from first blush to turning to pink (see the chart) so quickly that all my bigger maters are picked during one of those three stages. I never deliberately let them reach red stages on the plant. That would be foolish.
Avocado is a climacteric fruit. I'm sure we've all ripened one on the counter. It was picked past breaker or it wouldn't ripen properly. Do you take them outside and tie them to a plant to ripen? Then why leave tomatoes out past breaker? The belief they improve when left on the plant to get red and juicy is a myth. Only bad things can happen after breaker. Fungal and bacterial disease, worms, caterpillers, a multitude of bugs, filthy flies on them all day, cockroaches crawling on them at night, birds, mice, rats, other rodents, sunscald, windfall, rain induced cracking, irrrigation induced cracking, mineral and nutrient induced cracking, etc. In fact, even if none of the that happens, a tomato left on the plant until dead ripe in summer heat can easily become mushy and pungent tasting.
So educated tomato lovers/growers bring them in at first blush and understand the correct ripening process. Tomatoes begin ripening, they blush, when they start producing ethylene. That's right, the same evil gas used by big ag is produced naturally by the fruit (same with avos, bananas, apples and many others). One key difference is a tomato produces a little gas internally and ripens slowly as it emits from the inside out, while big ag uses a lot of gas externally ripening the outside quickly while the inside stays immature. The best way to ripen your blushed tomatoes is at a cool (65 to 70 degrees) temperature in a dark place unsealed. I clean the fruit thoroughly, dry it, line the bottom of a kitchen drawer with a bath towel, and set the blushed tomatoes in it. They should not be stacked on top of each other more than three high. They should not be bagged or boxed unless they can breathe very freely. Trapping the gas is a little like what big ag does. So is putting them in brown paper bags as often advised. The kitchen counter is better than a bag, not as good as the cool dark drawer. Many perfect tomatoes are ripened on counters or in cupboards. The taste does not suffer if done right and often is improved. Now you know stuff. You still may wish to ripen them outdoors. My 82 year old mom does regardless of this information. Then she's no FBG.
The cracking is related to all the rain. It's still a good topic, especially because yours is concentric as opposed to radial, but I don't feel like writing a long post and this would lead to the tomato harvesting lecture that I've been avoiding. Pssst, pick them a little sooner... before they crack. It isn't odd one early girl is cracking while the other isn't. I'm sure the one that isn't is draining better.
ruden’s Purple X Porter’s Dark Cherry F1 hybrid seed crossed summer 09Pruden’s PurpleOP Heirloom Ind, PL, pink beefteaksGreen DoctorsOP, modern heirloom, Ind, rl green cherriesPink Berkley Tie DyeModern heirloomBicolor striped, medMidseason, ind, rlCherokee PurpleOP heirloomInd, rl, lg beefsteakAnanas NoireOP modern heirloomBlack multicolor bfstkInd, rl midI think that's a sublime selection myself, but I offered Yuk the opportunity to make requests in PM, so you can do the same before I stuff the envelope. I have over 200 varieties at the moment, and I'm not listing, so if there's something you want suggest it and you may be surprised. Green Doctors are excellent and unique cherries, but you may want to trade them something a little easier to identify when ripe. They stay green. Which is cool in salads, and they are very sweet... green. You don't have a single red tomato on that list. Their all pink or purple/black other than the green when ripe cherry.
