Green Tomatoes

[Andit]

My friend is having no luck this year with the tomatoes. The tomatoes are growing happily enough & for once, the groundhogs, raccoons, & other wild neighbours aren't stealing them. BUT...they refuse to ripen, even when picked & left on the window ledge in the sun. & they are bitter.

Anyone have any idea why the tomatoes would be like this? Soil? Too much shade? Something else?

Also, what can one do with bitter green tomatoes? I'm wondering if they can be made into some sort of salsa or chutney? It seems a shame to throw them out, since even the scavengers aren't interested (I suppose they might make good compost if nothing else).

Thanks!

[Lua]

Are your friend's tomato plants really big?? all I can say is that maybe your friend should just leave them on the vine for now. My tomato plants are MASSIVE this year (ie. I'm 5'3 and they're bigger than me!) and I have probably about 30+ green tomatoes on my plants right now. I actually was wondering a few weeks ago why none were ripening yet, but then realized that the plants were SO big that maybe they didn't have the energy to help allow the tomatoes to rippen? At that point, I tried cleaning up my plants a bit, taking off stems that only had leaves on them and now, 2 weeks later, I've been enjoying a yellow tomato every 3 days or so and my giant beefsteak tomatoes are finally starting to turn red.

[Natalka]

This has happened to us at the very end of the season - they just stayed green.

What I made from them is, yup, fried green tomatoes, they are delish.

Just slice, dip into flour, then egg wash, then fine bread crumbs - fry in oil til browned on both sides, drain on paper towels, salt and pepper them while still hot.

Some recipes use cornmeal - I tried it and we didn't like them that way.

[Natalka]

Other recipes for green tomatoes

http://tipnut.com/green-tomato-recipes/

[blueeyetea]

My neighbor is having the same problem with his tomatoes and I think it's because of the lack of water so early in the season. You can make fried green tomatoes, of course. Even though we didn't have a garden when I grew up, my mother always made green tomato and apple chutney every year. She actually bought the green tomatoes at the farmer's market, would you believe.

Recently, I was listening to the Splendid Table and she had a few suggestions for using green tomatoes after a caller called for help. The podcast can be listed to or downloaded here:

http://splendidtable.publicradio.org/listings/120818/

[renegado]

Patience -- the will ripen. Unless they are undersize or damaged -- then they will either shrivel up or rot. Proximity to bananas is said to speed up ripening of some fruits. Try putting some in a warm place with a banana. They need heat more than light. If you want to keep some green and ripen them later, keep them cool.

[marstec]

I'll add my two cents to this discussion....

There are some varieties of tomatoes that taste better than others; you need to grow a few and find the ones that you like. Growing conditions play a huge part in how tomatoes taste and grow. If you don't give it enough water, it sometime leads to things like blossom end rot, or weird tasting tomatoes. The different nutrients and minerals (or lack there of) will also affect the taste.

If they are truly bitter tomatoes, I'm not sure I would bother making them into anything. When I make salsa or sauce, I want the best tasting flavours going in, it results in a better end product.

You might want to trim a few of the leaves to expose some of the tomatoes to the sun, but most tomatoes grow on their own time. You might have also picked a late producing variety. I like to pick mine when they are just starting to turn colour from green to light yellowish or orange. If picked when it is too green, sometimes the flavour suffers.

[matty's mom]

I'll add my two cents to this discussion....

There are some varieties of tomatoes that taste better than others; you need to grow a few and find the ones that you like. Growing conditions play a huge part in how tomatoes taste and grow. If you don't give it enough water, it sometime leads to things like blossom end rot, or weird tasting tomatoes. The different nutrients and minerals (or lack there of) will also affect the taste.

If they are truly bitter tomatoes, I'm not sure I would bother making them into anything. When I make salsa or sauce, I want the best tasting flavours going in, it results in a better end product.

You might want to trim a few of the leaves to expose some of the tomatoes to the sun, but most tomatoes grow on their own time. You might have also picked a late producing variety. I like to pick mine when they are just starting to turn colour from green to light yellowish or orange. If picked when it is too green, sometimes the flavour suffers.

Great advice! I have 4 different varieties of tomatoes (12 plants) in my garden and only the heirloom cherry tomatoes, and black plum were ripening. (Black plum seems slow though.) My plants were huge! About 3 weeks ago, I had cut almost every shoot off the plants that wasn't going to "make it". If the tomato was too small to grow before frost, gone. If there was a flower, gone. I want the plant to concentrate on the fruit that exists. Over the last couple of weeks, I have been able to pull off 5 or 6 tomatoes a week. But, I just harvested 16 large tomatoes about an hour ago- there are about 20 that need another week or so.

Good luck!

[Tbites]

Not sure what zone your friend is in (how long before first frost). I topped off my plants a little over a week ago (snipped the top of the main stem) so the plant could start concentrating on finishing off fruit production instead of growing.

Like a few people mentioned, they do need sun to ripen, so some heavy pruning would help. I also had a lot of late green tomatoes on 2 plants last year so I root pruned about 2 weeks before first frost.... it shocks the plant and encourages it to ripen. Root pruning is severing the roots on 2 sides of the plant (not all around !) about 4-5 inches from the center.

Not sure about the bitterness though.... maybe that'll change when they ripen ?

[sandraw7]

My son had brain surgery last summer and one of our says in the ICU we had a tremendous storm that ripped all my tomato plants out of the ground. I made a delicious green tomato bread - it was awesome. It was very similar in taste and texture to a zucchini bread. I also made a wonderful chutney with green tomatoes, raisins, chopped dates, onions and lots of other things. I will try to find the recipes - although both were found in the great www.

[Andit]

Thank you so very much, everyone, for your help! Ya'll are wonderful!!!

The plants got a heavy duty pruning, since they did grow a bit tall & thick (as in several plants were almost intertwined). I have a bag full of green tomatoes & I think I'll make one of the salsas in the recipe link Natalka posted (the irony is that I'm allergic to tomatoes, so I certainly won't be doing the taste testing). I might also try the tomato bread idea.

Thanks again, everyone.

[jasperandchar]

I make green tomatoe pickles, slice the tomatoes in slices, quarters, etc...put a garlic cloves & sprig of dill in each 500ml jar, pack jars with garlic, sprig of deal & tomatoes whichever way you choose to cut them. Equal parts vinegar & water, heat and then pour over raw tomato mixture in jars. Then put in hot water bath over stove for 15 minutes, remove & cool and put away for later use.

These are excellent on hamburgers and replace the need for a pickle & tomato.

Enjoy

[Darth Penguin]

This has happened to us at the very end of the season - they just stayed green.

What I made from them is, yup, fried green tomatoes, they are delish.

Just slice, dip into flour, then egg wash, then fine bread crumbs - fry in oil til browned on both sides, drain on paper towels, salt and pepper them while still hot.

need to try..droooooooolsssssss.

[sweetnlow30]

I still have green tomatoes too. I will try pruning them down this weekend

[endi2000]

I, too, had a bunch of green cherry tomatoes which wouldn't ripen - so found a recipe for muffins and green tomato bread. Found the bread to be a bit dry but the muffins were quite nice (had also tried chocolate muffins with beets which were VERY moist). I froze some of the green tomatoes to try the muffin recipe with when I am in the baking mode in the winter