CHAPTER XIV
Ripening, Gathering, Handling and Marketing the Fruit
Tomatoes ripen and color from within outward and they will acquire full and often superior color, particularly about the stems, if, as soon as they have acquired full size and the ripening process has fairly commenced, they are picked and spread out in the sunshine. The point of ripeness when they can be safely picked is indicated by the surface color changing from a dark green to one of distinctly lighter shade with a very light tinge of pink. Fruit picked in this stage of maturity may be wrapped in paper and shipped 1,000 or 2,000 miles and when unwrapped after two or ten days' journey will be found to have acquired a beautiful color, often even more brilliant than that of a companion fruit left on the vine. Enclosing the fruit while on the vine and about half grown in paper bags has been recommended, and it often results in deeper and more even coloring and prevents injury from cracking, but the fruit so ripened, while more beautiful, is not so well flavored as that ripened in the sun. But Americans are said to taste with their eyes, so that in this country, fruit of this beautiful color will often out-sell that which is of better flavor though of duller color.
The tomato never acquires its full and most perfect flavor except when ripened on the vine and in full sunlight. Vine and sun-ripened tomatoes, like tree-ripened peaches, are vastly better flavored than those artificially ripened. This is the chief reason why tomatoes grown in hothouses in the vicinity are so much superior to those shipped in from farther south. After it has come to its most perfect condition on the plant the fruit deteriorates steadily, whether gathered or allowed to remain on the vine, and the more rapidly in proportion as the air is hot and moist. That it be fresh is hardly less essential to the first quality in a tomato than it is to such things as lettuce and cucumbers.
Gathering.—As is the case with most horticultural products, the best methods of gathering, handling and marketing the fruit vary greatly with the conditions under which the fruit was grown and how it is to be used, and it requires the best of judgment to gather it in the stage of maturity in which it will give the best satisfaction, under the conditions and for the purposes for which it is to be used. It is impossible to give exact rules for determining when the fruit is in the best condition. This can only be learned by experience, guided by a knowledge of the ripening habit of the fruit, which not only varies somewhat in different localities, but with different varieties. In the extreme South, fruit is picked for shipment before it shows more than the slightest tint of color at the blossom end; the depth of color which is considered as indicating shipping condition deepens as we go north and nearer market.
Generally the fruit should be left on the vine no longer than will permit of its becoming fully ripe by the time it reaches its destination and is exposed for sale. When the fruit is to be shipped any distance the field should be gone over frequently, as often as every second or third day or even every day in the hight of the season, and care taken to pick every fruit as soon as it is in proper condition. When it is to be sold in nearby markets or to a cannery the exact stage of maturity, when picked, is not so important, although it is always an advantage not to gather until the fruit is well colored and before it begins to soften. Some growers for canneries make but three or four pickings, but in this case it is well to gather the ripest fruit separately.
In picking and handling great care should be taken not to mar or bruise the fruit, and the stems should be removed as the fruit is picked to prevent bruising in handling. A bruise or mar may not be as conspicuous in a tomato as in a peach, but it is quite as injurious. It is a great deal better for pickers to use light pails rather than baskets, the flexibility of the latter often resulting in bruises. It is an advantage to have enough of these so that the sorting can be from the pail, but if this is not practical the fruit should be carefully emptied on a sorting table for grading. It should first of all be separated with regard to its maturity. A single fruit which is a little riper or greener than the remainder may make the entire package unsalable. It should also be graded as to freedom from blemishes or cracks, and as to size, form and color. It is assumed that the fruit for each package is to be of the same variety, but often there is quite a variation in different fruits from even the same vine; the more uniform in all respects the fruit in a package is the more attractive and salable it becomes. There is no fruit where careful grading and packing have more influence on the price it will command.
