As many of you already know, we like to grow tomatoes. This year we had two different setups for our tomatoes. We had a group of tomatoes in our greenhouse, which were our main producers, and we had a group of outdoor tomatoes. The outdoor tomatoes were a bit of an experiment for us, as we have never tried to grow outdoor tomatoes at our place in Montana. The weather up here usually only allows for certain types of tomatoes to grow outside. The preferred method of growing tomatoes in Montana is with a greenhouse.

As the season went on, our greenhouse tomatoes ripened and were picked; however, our outdoor tomatoes never seemed to ripen up. The tomatoes remained green all the way until October - at which point our growing season was coming to an end. So what were we supposed to do with all these green tomatoes? Well we decided to pick them off of the vine and put them in brown paper bags to speed up the ripening process. Several days later this is what we ended up with:

These gorgeous heirloom tomatoes were all under ripe and green when picked off their plants. Each tomato was equally delicious as they looked, and it was really cool to have tomatoes all the way up until November! Now, as we enjoy our last few days of warm weather, we wait for winter to arrive. The days of growing tomatoes might be over for the farm, but that doesn’t mean we didn’t get the maximum out of our crop this year. I look forward to growing more outdoor tomatoes next season and experimenting with different varieties to see which types grow best in our climate. I’m curious to learn which types of tomatoes have you had the most success with growing outdoors in your growing zone? Enter your comments and answers in the comments below : )

-JG