The difference in produce

This is kinda of late in the publishing but it is of interest to me since I am pursuing interests in gardening, more produce and herbs than flowers. I don't have the time for all of it. My little story about produce begins when I first moved to my current abode in Springfield. The owner, dear Damla, had a beautiful vegetable garden during the summer but at the time of our move it was the beginning of November. Upon checking the garden we didn't find any red delicious tomatoes but green ones. My roommate and I decided to have a little experiment with one of these green tomatoes. She picked it off the vine and brought it into the house. Would this green little tomato ripen off the vine? As ridiculous as the question was and looking back on it seems even more ridiculous we went forward with our experiment. This little tomato plant became a fixture on the window seal in our kitchen, but it wasn't getting any sun light through the window because attached to the back (a more recent addition to the 1940's house) is a sunroom which blocks any natural light we might get.

Days went by into weeks, and then a month. Little by little I noticed a slight color change until it became a beautiful red tomato. Now thinking upon this for a moment I it came to my mind that growing up my dad would pick all the tomatoes and even some fruit early and it would slowly ripen off the vine. Why didn't I catch that one before? Silly me.

The difference now between a naturally ripen fruit and one picked from the vine early. Well have you had a fresh ripe tomato plucked straight from the vine? Compare that to the flavor of a ripe store bought tomato. This is relative to any fruit or vegetable that has any amount of flavor. If you pick it early you lose lots of flavor and it sadly to say doesn't taste all that good...like store bought produce.

So if you can, GROW IT!