Tomato theft.

[angelique]

I guess I am lucky. No one has every stolen my tomatoes. There are a few birds that theive. To bad Ziggy and Momo (my doggies) are out of reach of my plants.

I do, unfortunately, have neighbors that happen to mention "Wow, I can't want until you have tomatoes." Although this neighbor is super cool, she is still able bodied to grow her own plants. The previous owner of her house was in his late 70's when he moved. He would have gotten first choice in my garden...I really do miss him.

I share when I can, but when I can't I don't. When comes time to sharing it is usually in this order:

Grandparents
Brother
Great Uncles
DH's co-workers (especially his boss)
And so on.

[MsCowpea]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Glenn I realy found your post so funny I am still laughing about it now, I am realy gonna get myself a bunch of tomatoes this summer and go visiting some of the choice widows and floosies in my area in the hope my tomatoes will influance the outcome of my feeble excuse for the visit. "

Michael, I love your creative take on a bad situation.
Glenn's misfortune may be your gain. Do tell if it works--hope there isn't a wife sitting at home wondering about your sudden new-found generousity with your toms.

Glenn, can't believe people do that to you when you sell them at a market --that makes it even worse. Don't beat around the bush--just put a sign that says DO NOT PICK--explain to people that you don't have enough to take to the market as too many people are helping themselves. They need to check with you first if you have enough to give out of the kindness of your heart.

I have read about your sort of problem before but people never write back to say if they did anything about or just suffered in silence. Please give an update. Farkee

[Worth1]

I’ve had all, ‘that’s right, all of the peppers and tomatoes completely ripped from the plants with no regard for the plant it’s self.

Who would want to steal all of the peppers from 50 plants Tabasco’s and such?
And it must have been 2 washtubs of tomatoes.
It wasn’t hard to find the culprit I found the remains of the plants in the yard of an acquaintance a block or two away after some friends where talking about all of the peppers and tomatoes this person had and how hot the peppers were.
Seems kind of strange, as this man had no garden.

I told the man in front of his friends that when he wanted peppers and tomatoes that he should look on the AC and he would find scissors to cut the peppers from the plants and showed him how to pull tomatoes from the vine so as not to destroy the plants.

I then asked the whole crowd how many plants they think I should grow so we could all have some next year.

This was a real tight knit neighbor hood and I was new to it and I must admit I came from a different cultural background than they did so I guess they thought they could steal from me and it would be OK.
After all was said and done I grew the peppers and tomatoes and I hardly had to cut the grass or weed eat and was invited to all of the BBQ’s fish fry’s and family reunions in the area and was a welcome member there for ten years.
And nothing was ever stolen from my place ever again.

[gflynn]

Glenn,

It is said that a tomato that starts to turn color will do just as well in your house as on the vine. I would wait till I see a blush then bring them right inside. They will ripen up just fine on your "Tomato Table".

Greg

[valereee]

You can try planting something for the beggars and thieves. Choose the variety for perfection of beauty -- color, size, shape -- not taste. I am betting these will be the most desired tomatoes in the garden.

Val

[Fusion_power]

I get several visitors for free tomatoes during the ripening season. I make it a point to visit the garden with them and let them pick the ones I point out that they can have. Since I grow several hundred plants mostly to produce seed, I have quite a bit of excess fruit. I preserve all I want and the excess is either sold or given away. But, I DON'T allow anyone else in the garden to just pick and choose as they will.

Fusion

[TomatoDon]

dokutaaguriin


Teh short version of your fine reply is:

Ask before you pick!

Don

[Torquill]

Unfortunately, I've found that shame doesn't deter the shameless. And anyone who will blatantly steal from another person's garden qualifies as shameless. Posting signs that remind people that stealing is wrong will just be ignored because these people don't think the rules apply to them.

I'd go along the lines of the signs suggested here... how about

TEST PLOT: Irrigated with recycled sewage. Not for human consumption. With a nice biohazard symbol...

That'll nauseate most people. If you set up a motion activated sprinkler, they'll get to wonder whether it uses recycled sewage water too...

--Alison
who is a firm believer in the polite lie, such as "nope, don't have any toms to give away -- I just sold them all" or "sorry, someone came last night and nicked them, so I don't have any". It helps if you don't have them laid out on the kitchen table behind you, of course...

[michael johnson]

I should say:- that the real answer to Glenns problems would to be to erect several large signs around the area with this wording on them.
( Pick your own tomatoes $ 3.50 a pound, Please return to office for weighing in when finished ) that usualy puts a guilty feeling in the theives and also if it inspires them to pay $ 3.50 a pound for them it may well be your gain rather than loss.

Cowpea:- I was only joking realy about the widows and Floosies, my wife would kill me if she new and would probably hit me over the head with a rolling pin, but still its a thought to bear in mind should I ever become that desperate !

[Fusion_power]

Glenn,

I know now that you are an old man. I guess I knew it already, but now you've proven it. A young man would not hesitate to nick a few tomatoes as sacrifices in the everlasting pursuit of knickers (or rather whats in the knickers). It takes an old man to appreciate the value of the tomato.

Fusion

[cottonpicker]

fusion... Words of wisdom!