When the weather guy announced a high chance of a frost in the forecast, my husband harvested our tomatoes. He left a little of the vine on them as suggested by SalPal on my post November Tomatoes.
My husband left the main plant in tact and re-covered it with cheesecloth because it still has blooms and it may or may not die with this frost.
From many years of experience, my brother knows oodles about tomatoes: growing, propagating and ripening. He told me that one of the best ways to ripen tomatoes is in a paper bag or cardboard box with either a banana or apple in with them. The ethylene gas produced by an apple or banana helps the tomatoes ripen better. We agreed that a banana seemed like a possibly messy idea, so an apple seemed the best option.
The bag or box needs to be closed and put in a cool dark place and checked every day, if your tomatoes are at different levels of ripening like mine are.
We haven’t tried one yet. You can’t tell it from the photos, but the reddest ones are still bit under-ripe.
Regardless of the taste, it’s been really enjoyable watching the volunteer plant grow and produce in November. It’s been a rare treat and that in itself is worth the attention and care we’ve given it.
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I’m one of those folks who believes that apples help keep potatoes from sprouting too quickly. The other day I opened my potato bin to get out some potatoes and was a bit surprised when I saw that the apple had burst open. I picked it up expecting it to be mushy or soft, but it was firmer than a fresh apple and had dried out in the open wound.
I don’t know what variety it was. We’d bought the apples at a small grocery store and didn’t keep the bag.
Over the years, I’ve kept different varieties of apples with my potatoes. They last a long time, after a few weeks I toss them next to the woods for whatever critter may want them. This strange apple bursting open is a first for me. I can’t figure out what happened to it. I think it’s just so odd. 
The stores have started placing shelves in the middle-isles with seasonal baking supplies. Generally, we don’t pay much attention, but the other day a Libby’s Pumpkin Cheesecake mix caught our eye. We decided that since we like pumpkin pie and we also like cheesecake that we may like this mix as well.
We were wrong. Well, not wrong, just disappointed that it tasted too much like a regular old pumpkin pie with a small bit of a tangy taste of cream cheese.
Recently I decided we needed a new potato bin for our kitchen. I wanted a small one to set on the counter. I shopped online but couldn’t find one made the way I wanted. I talked it over with my husband and he suggested we build our own potato bin. Together we designed the new potato bin. We gathered the supplies over a couple weeks, but it took my husband only a few hours to make the bin. I’m pleased with our new potato bin. It looks a lot better in reality than in the photo, it has a rustic charm sitting on our counter.
Joys Of Creating 