I grew a new variety of tomatoes this year in my Martian soil. It is a Blue Cream grape tomato. When I got my first one, I was so excited. Then I bit into it and my world changed. It was a so-so tomato. A great letdown is an understatement. After a couple of weeks, I noticed some had changed even more as they languished on the vine. The yellow became darker than the fruit itself became translucent. Me being me, I stuffed it in my mouth. It was the best tomato I have eaten in 30 years. It had a wonderful flavor. Which got me thinking about the fact that it was not the tomato that let me down. It was the fact that I had not allowed the tomato to ripen. How did I miss a ripe tomato?

What is a Ripe Tomato?

This is a serious question. We have been conditioned in our grocery stores to eat underripe tomatoes. Let’s look at some of my beefsteaks as I am stuffing them in the drier. They are the red ones for anyone who does not know.

There are two very different looking tomatoes. One is dark red. You can feel it pull your eyes to it. The other is red but kind of white. One was pulled too early because its skin was red. The other was allowed to sit on the vine until it became RED.

Many tomatoes have this duo color setup. They look ripe. They might even be a bit soft.

It’s a TRAP!

It is not there yet. I fall for this at least once a year. My desire for a fresh vine ripe tomato makes me do stupid things. My mind knows it is too early but my tummy says, “Naw, It’ll be alright.”

It never is.

My Ripe Cherry Tomato

Different cultivars, have different tests. For instance, most beefsteak varieties seem to have multiple shades of red. Pull too early and it is ok. Very much like a good grocery store tomato. Let it go to the next phase and it will be mind blowing.

Getting back to my Blue Cream, I think I identified how to tell when it is ripe.

While the yellow is looking a bit green in this picture, here is a underripe Blue Cream tomato. It has really good color. It is yellow with a nice blue blush on the top. My lighting made it look a bit too green. These don’t turn a gorgeous yellow like a Yellow Pear.

While it looks ripe for one of these tomatoes, it is missing a key component. The grape and cherry tomatoes appear to hit peak flavor when the skin goes translucent.

See how you can see through the skin? This seems to be the key to know when the fruit is ripe. Just by going on color, you get a hard, grocery store flavored lumps. Let it go translucent then you get a juicy burst of flavor with every bite.

I do have to say my camera makes all my yellow tomatoes look greener than they actually are. I wonder if it is the greenish tones in the wood background?

Let’s look at my Yellow Pear tomatoes.

Yellow Pear Tomato Ripeness

In many ways it is the same as the Blue Cream but it is different. Look at the one below.

This looks like a perfect yellow tomato. Nice even color, the green is all gone. It is not ripe. It still hardish to the touch. This one came off early because I was rustling around in the tomato patch and got a bit too aggressive.

Here is what a ripe one looks like.

Look at the color on this one. It is deeper yellow, almost going orange. You can also see the skin is starting to go translucent. This one is soft, juicy and flavorful.

What About My Beefsteaks

I have not noticed the pattern of translucent skin on my beefsteaks. My test has traditionally been, if it looks red then it needs to be redder. I have dug around in my picture collection and I don’t see one that looks translucent. This got me thinking, is it a characteristic of the beefsteak tomatoes or is it a characteristic of red tomatoes?

I never noticed this pattern until this year. The Blue Cream were so blatant that even I could figure out that one. It is an observation that I have made. Sadly, when the literature starts describing when things are ripe, it is often not very precise. I guess the cultivars mess with creating a single standard.

I would love to know if anyone has found ways of telling when their tomatoes are at peak ripeness.