Tomatoes Fresh Frozen On The Vine

Cold weather in Florida hurts tomato Crop

So 70% of the Florida tomato crop was lost in the recent blast of cold weather on the east coast. Do I care? Not really. I wasn't going to eat any of those tomatoes anyway. I try not to eat or buy food that has traveled from one end of the country to the diagonally opposite corner, let alone from a different hemisphere. I still have plenty of dried tomatoes and some in the freezer too, so I should make it until tomaotes are ripe in Oregon.

But if I buy any tomatoes, fresh or canned, it might have an impact on the price I have to pay.

And so I will strive for a bumper tomato harvest this summer, just like I do every year. Some years it works out. Last year it didn't. I planted in the newly exposed soil where we de-paved half of the driveway. And although I loosened the soil and amended a lot, it was poor, and the tomatoes didn't do well.

Since then we have added raised beds in that area and will fill them with rich, luscious soil, so whatever ends up there should fare better. I think I'll go back to the south facing beds on the side of the house for the tomatoes this year, and make lavish offerings to the tomato gods.