donnabaskets, Don't give up. Try the Orient Wonder Pole Beans from Kitchen Garden Seeds. They are a "yardlong bean" according to type but they taste like "pole bean green beans". I grew them 2 years ago and they were super, super prolific in 100 degree heat. I am growing them again this year and again they are super, super prolific. There are other seed merchants that sell the Orient Wonder Pole Bean but I like Kitchen Garden because their seed packet has 175 seeds and most other seed merchants only have 50 seeds or less. I only plant 25 seeds per season so this packet will last me several more years. I will try to post a photo of the plants - Can't do so now because just harvested almost all for my MIL. Cheers, DL Here is a link that might be useful: John Scheepers Kitchen Garden Seeds

I do not know why the question was asked. But.....If it is going to save me about 100 bucks off my 350 buck winter bill it will give me more money to buy more plants and pay the water bill that I have use to keep them watered. LOL!!!! But from Al's response, although I did not understand it, I might still be able to save on my food bill if I stand close enough to my plants at the proper time I can get some water, glucose, and fat (well maybe I will skip the fat) I have enough of that on my butt. I am amazed of the knowledge on the Houseplant forum.

In my hot "mountain" (hill) neighborhood nearly everyone has good luck with Black Krim, Mortgage Lifter, Sungold and Sweet 100. I actually leave my plants in over the winter -- my best tomatoes here are from January-April. Then I plant the new ones in Feb or March for the following year while I harvest from last year's plants. That said, I'd like to have summer tomatoes... so... I bought a couple dozen of the heirloom tomatoes today at Green Arrow (L.A.) that laurel of http://www.heirloomtomatoplants.com/ said were tolerant at 95 degrees, or above. I had to go through and look for the little multiple sunshine icons on her site -- it's remarkable that she doesn't have a heat-tolerant page since she sorts them by every other characteristic. Here are some, from her site: "Does well in hight Altitude" - Azoychka, black cherry, black plum, carmello, fireworks, indigo blue berries, jutland, lime green salad, northern lights, sunset's red horizon, Santiago, sweet baby girl Sets fruit above 95, maybe to 98 - 1984, black-plum, cherokee-purple, cuostrolee, Florida91, Jutland, purple-haze-homegrown, Santiago, Sungold, Super-Souix, Sweet-baby-girl. Others. Sets fruit to 95: berkely tie dye, Black-Krim, black-plum, black-tazmanian, cherokee-chocolate, cherokee-purple, chocolate-amazon, chocolate-stripes, indigo blue berries, japanese-chocolate-truffle, southern-nights, mortgage-lifter. There are others if you look at her site, but I was looking for blacks and purples... I'm looking around for some of the specific "heat set" tomatoes thatwere developed specifically so they don't drop their blossoms above 95 -- so far this year I found "Hawaiian Tropic" at Armstrong. I'd REALLY like to find a Florida91 or a Santiago. I'm not sure how "high altitude" affects tomatoes, but I am on an Los Angeles "hilltop."

Yes and no. It only works with fresh picked produce, not something pick and then stored improperly or bad growing conditions. It won't 'save' something like your strawberries already starting to go off and soft. Those bruised soft spots in berries are best just rinsed, maybe in a bit of lemon in the water, or citric acid, then frozen immediately. Pick through your berries and use the best unblemished ones fresh. Often market growers that only sell once a week might just be picking a few days before selling and not storing them properly. Or THEY should be soaking, and drying, for a longer shelf life. Maybe doing their own trial and error research for what works best for them and their customers. Might be different every year. Written articles like that get running around the web in small translations without the full study. Difficult to apply it so black and white, 5min, 30 seconds, etc. Why were they testing and for whom? The big farm suppliers that grow varieties for travel instead of flavor? It mentions they have been testing for years but says they are still unsure why and still in study. I just think with so many varieties of each fruit or vegetable...different growing conditions or just a bad year for what variety was chosen, has more affect on your shelf life. And when it was picked and how it was stored before selling. Having grown hundreds of edibles over 20yrs of gardening, it is still a guessing game every year on methods of storage. Last year i could only harvest raspberries in the evenings just before sunset and after very hot days. The berries were hot, very hot when picked but also dry. Right into the fridge they lasted a week easy. Only rinsed just before eating. If i picked on a weekend early morning they did not last as long. Probably too much moisture. Damp foggy mornings. Same with tender salad greens. Picked late in the day hot, rinsed hot water...(no choice as the garden water is warm/hot). Spun dry in a cotton pillow case, looking sad and limp. Into the fridge still in the pillow case....lasted two weeks fresh. Never thought that would work. It worked last year. It was picked naturally warm, not forced 'warm'. I also came across the article a while ago and just made a mental note to try different methods rather than rely on what i had always read. For my climate, watering early in the day while still damp from misty fog and picking later in the day extends shelf life. Local, fresh, and in season for your area always has the best flavor but is sometimes picked very ripe. Or over-ripe. One of my local farm stands does just that. Everything is over ripe or rotting. They get annoyed if you touch anything. (i don't shop there but try once a year and leave empty handed) Still best to buy fresh and eat fresh in season or freeze while still fresh. If the method works once in a while, it might just be chance and circumstance. Life is not too short to clean your produce properly and add a bit of vinegar and dry them well before the fridge. Or use lemon or citric acid on cut fruit so it does not brown. Just buy the best looking and don't rely on a packaged sell/by use/by date. I had two sad limp heads of red leaf lettuce that i thought was headed to the compost but soaked them in ice water....ice under the colander. Forgot and soaked over night. Perky and fresh the next morning. Wrapped in a wet thick cotton tight weave towel, (not wet terry cloth). Just damp and into the veg bin in the fridge. Crisp and fresh for sunday's ball game. Stupid expensive and seldom buy salad in the winter months except for maybe arugula.