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| Hi All, I planted a late summer crop of cherry tomatoes in July, and they are doing great. We are expecting a hard freeze mid-week, and I know I'll lose the plants. They are LOADED with green tomatoes right now - is it worth picking and trying to ripen these indoors or should I just be thankful for the harvest I've already gotten? I did pick anything that has any color at all, so now I'm talking about those that are still completely green. It seems a shame to just let them freeze but, at the same time, a lot of trouble to pick them (there's probably a hundred or more) if they aren't going to ripen well. Thanks in advance! Jennie |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| It's worth a try. That's alot of food to waste. Just think of how crappy the grocery store ones taste. I would put them in a paper bag for a few weeks and hope they ripen. We have gotten totally green regular size tomatoes to ripen by wrapping them in newspaper. |
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| Definitely pick them. One year, I pulled all my tomato plants and saved all the green cherry tomatoes to give to a friend for her chickens. It was a few days before I saw her, and I noticed that many of those green tomatoes had begun to blush (so the chickens got short-changed when I kept those for myself!) Linda |
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| Other uses for them are : Pickling (just like cukes, same recipe) and make relish. I am not a relish big fan but I have made some green tiny tomato pickle. I like them better than cukes. |
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| Green fried tomatoes are a delicacy down here. I've never tried them. |
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| Before I tore my cherries out of the high tunnel, 100 plus plants, I picked 63 pints of blushing, almost blushing and all the green ones on the trusses of blushing ones and then the biggest green ones. That was almost a month ago They have almost all have ripened up. Some have shriveled, some split and got thrown out and I sold 1/3 of them. Some tasted good, some bad. We made a taco soup and used 3 or 4 pints of them for the sauce. It tasted pretty good. I say pick and see, you will only be out your time. Jay |
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- Posted by jennieboyer 8 (My Page) on Mon, Nov 17, 14 at 21:31
| Thanks everyone! I picked 20 lbs this morning, and some of them are blushing. I am going to separate those out and let them ripen. I plan to pickle the rest of them. For those who have done it this way, can the tomatoes be too small for pickling? Not from the standpoint of working with them, but from the standpoint of they just aren't mature enough to taste good? I picked everything I could get my hands on - some of them are fairly small. |
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- Posted by Miss.Fernandez none (My Page) on Tue, Nov 18, 14 at 10:47
| Hi JennieBoyer. I am not a fan of fried green tomatoes and don't think tomatoes should be cooked BUT I found a nice recipe for green tomato soup. I believe it's from Epicurious. You can also make chutney (I've never made it but I've heard its good). |
Here is a link that might be useful: Green Tomato Soup
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- Posted by bmoser z6PA (b2m2@moserproduce.com) on Mon, Nov 24, 14 at 13:42
| There are only so many uses for green tomatoes and I believe that unless you like the end product you are better to not waste time preparing large quantities of it. I decided this morning to compost over 10 bu. of larger green tomatoes which I had picked prior to the freeze and the last farmers' markets I attended. Eventually they all rot if just held in storage and even those that turn color lack the flavor of a vine ripened tomato. I still have a few bu. of colored tomatoes but what I envision is a weekly sorting routine to toss the decaying fruits and in the end we will have eaten a dozen or less tomatoes. My vote and my quest is for the vine ripened tomatoes next May. I believe the overwhelming majority of my tomato customers feel the same. |
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