Green tomatoes

**forHISglory** · 10-26-2011, 06:31 PM

I still have a lot of green tomatoes on the vine. But it's the end of October in Iowa, and I know I need to do something with them.

Can I just pick and bring them in? Should I cut off part of the vine with them? Do I store in fridge? In a cool place? Warm place? Dark place? Light place?

Any advice would be welcomed, as I don't want to lose them, and look forward to ripe tomatoes for a while.

**HappyMama** · 10-26-2011, 06:48 PM

Here is a thread on this :

Green tomatoes!!!!

Hope that helps and enjoy your tomatoes

**forHISglory** · 10-26-2011, 11:26 PM

Thanks! I'll see how well they do if I leave them on the vine.

**frugalfranny** · 10-27-2011, 01:04 AM

Cool place.......that does not freeze........with good air circulation.

Experiment with vine or no vine...........see if you can taste a
difference.........some people say yes, don't know that I could tell.

I you want a couple of them to ripen faster........put them in a sunny window.........ripe tomatoes soon!!

Good luck..............

ENJOY!!!

**forHISglory** · 10-27-2011, 07:36 AM

I plan to pick the tomatoes today as we have a hard freeze warning for tonight. So far, I have babied them along by covering at night with a sheet, but it's time to pack up the garden for the year. I think I will try the vine method, and put them in the unfinished part of the basement: it's cool, dry, and has good air circulation. Here's hoping!!!

**peanut** · 10-28-2011, 06:14 PM

I eat them as green tomatoes! Either in green tomato casserole or make a green tomato relish with them for the rest of the year.

**MamaTreadler** · 10-28-2011, 08:20 PM

I place mine in a paper bag in a dark closet/room. They will ripen beautifully that way. I have 5 large paper grocery sacks with green tomatoes in them right now living in my son's room on the bottom bunk. I've ripened my green tomatoes this way for years. I don't get a lot of natural light, so a sunny window is out.

**Libby** · 10-28-2011, 09:22 PM

Originally Posted by peanut

I eat them as green tomatoes! Either in green tomato casserole or make a green tomato relish with them for the rest of the year.

Care to share the recipes?

**peanut** · 10-28-2011, 11:55 PM

Sure! Green Tomato chutney

Green Tomato Pie (Ignore the photo on this recipe. It makes it look a lot less appetizing than it really is!) I dress it up with parsley and serve with garlic toast. DH loves it!

**Libby** · 10-29-2011, 12:22 AM

WOW both of those recipes sound great for us to use up the overabundance of green cherry tomatoes we have on hand. I will definitely be trying out that chutney recipe using both sugar and splenda

12oz = 1.5cups and we have WAY more then that waiting to be used up

Thanks peanut!!

**peanut** · 10-29-2011, 11:02 AM

You're welcome!

**Saydee** · 10-29-2011, 04:30 PM

We picked boxes of green tomatoes a few days ago because of last night's freeze and they're already starting to turn. I'm going to make juice out of them.

**LuvMyHubby** · 10-30-2011, 09:35 AM

My mom used to pick them and put in a box and layer with newspaper. Also they will ripen in a window once picked.

All else fails....fried green tomatos. I cannot stand them but Hubby and DD love them.

**forHISglory** · 11-09-2011, 06:15 AM

Update on my tomatoes:
I picked them the end of October, and left a lot of vine on them. We spread newspapers in an unfnished, unheated part of the basement and put the tomatoes/vines on those. The vines are drying up, but the tomatoes are WONDERFUL!!! They are ripening at a rate of a few each day (so we are enjoying all we can eat fresh tomatoes). Hubby says they taste as good as fresh tomatoes picked on a summer's day! They are a deep red or yellow (depending on variety), juicy, flavorful..... I am so happy that we went this direction. thanks for all the advice!