Q: I want “vine-ripened” tomatoes but mine are too ripe and mushy when I eat them. When should you pick a tomato?

A: As you’ve probably noticed, tomatoes ripen in stages. Commercial growers pick them when there is no color showing and artificially ripen the fruit with ethylene gas. But once a tomato has turned ten percent orange, usually around the blossom end, it’s in the “breaker” stage and can ripen all by itself.

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