Chinese Lanterns - Physalis alkekengi
I received a start of this unusual perennial from a good friend, and they are quite easy to grow. The foliage is not much to look at, but check out the lovely orange lanterns it produces. I cut them off before the heavy rains set in, and hung them upside down to dry. I'll use them in arrangements soon. They are cool, aren't they?
And here are the tomato plants that we plucked from our garden, before the tomatoes all became split and ruined in the rain. We hung them upside down, too.
Even without soil, they'll continue to riped their fruit for several more weeks, and we can enjoy red-ripe tomatoes. Isn't that amazing?
Have you ever tried these methods, or hung anything else to dry that turned out well?
3 comments:
We'll have to do that with our two tomato plants because the rain is starting to fall and they're looking pretty funky. And they DO split open!
I've never hung the chinese lanterns - I've just enjoyed them in the garden.
But... this year I read about hanging the tomatoes, so as we were expecting snow the night before we left on our long trip, almost a month ago, we hauled the plants into the garage. I am enjoy tomatoes every day! And, they taste just as good as if they had been growing in the sunshine.
We were also told to layer tomatoes between layers of newspaper in a box or basket. We did that with all of the ones that fell off as we wrestled in getting them out of the ground. I can't attest to how they did, but the house sitter said they were wonderful and she had a steady supply.
Patti and Dreaming - I imagine our forefathers knew all kinds of tricks to keep food through the winter. They had to, in order to survive! For us, it's just a luxury to have ripe tomatoes - they are so yummy.
I've also found that if they show even a little bit of color - like yellow or orange, you can pluck them and they will ripen on your windowsill. Good luck with keeping yours going for awhile longer. :-)
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