July is the time that I start hunting for ripe tomatoes.  Everything seems to be ready!  The vines are large and vigorous  and there are full sized green tomatoes everwhere you look.  The weather is surely warm enough and there is plenty of sun.  However, tomatoes have their own timetables and once the cage is up and the mulch is down, my role as a gardener at this point in the process is to watch and wait.

Some of the early tomatoes have begun to change in color from apple green to a pale green that, in some varieties, is almost yellow.  This is a sign that they may begin to ripen soon, but tomatoes ripen on their own schedule.  If I had to guess, I would expect to be able to put tomatoes into baskets within the next couple of weeks, but I can never be sure until I start to see them red on the vines.

For the time being, we’ll have to satisfy ourselves with walks between the tomato cages, and the rich aroma of the plants themselves.  We’ll have ripe tomatoes soon, and then the feasting can begin.