On the other side of the soggy tomato spectrum is the green tomato. These lovely nuggets started to grow on your vines in the late summer, but they never quite made it to ripe tomato perfection. Instead, they sit there half-grown, making you wish that summer was still here.
Instead of sobbing over green tomatoes, what can you do with them?
You can leave them on the vine. As long as the weather is sometimes sunny and around 60 degrees, the tomatoes may slowly ripen. Here, it’s been raining off and on for a few weeks, yet in the scattered patches of sun between the rain, my tomatoes have been slowly, surely ripening. Pinch off any last flowers to help the existing tomatoes ripen.
If you take a wait and see approach to your green tomatoes, watch the weather closely. Once the temperature begins to cool towards freezing in the evenings, place a plastic sheet around your tomato plants to stop them from freezing. If rain rather than cold is your problem, watch for splits in the tomatoes. Make sure that the vines are not turning color, either dying or getting dark with tomato blight. When the tomato plant stops feeding your tomatoes, it’s time to harvest.
You can harvest your tomatoes green and work on ripening them. Although nothing is better than a fresh, vine-picked tomato, not all of our tomatoes will make it that far. While you can simply place the tomatoes into a dark, well-ventilated space, placing an apple in there with them will help ripen them.
Green tomatoes make good eating, too. Choose green tomatoes that have a hint of color at the top. These are the closest to ripening. You can steam them and fry them like the cooked tomatoes, or you can make green tomato salsa. Green tomato salsa tastes a bit like tomatillos. Fresh and tart, it pairs well with the carbohydrate-rich delights of fall.
What do you do with your green tomatoes?