7 gallons of green tomatoes

[gumbo2176]

Well, New Orleans had some below freezing weather earlier this week for a couple days and it took a toll on my tomato plants. I saw where they were browning off and when I attempted to tie the plants, lots of green tomatoes fell off.

SOOOO, I decided to uproot the plants, take all the green tomatoes off and make a huge batch of Salsa Verde and put that up for later use. This should be enough for close to 3 gallons of the stuff. I spent the better part of 2 hours today cleaning tomatoes and cutting them up for cooking down. I made some of this last week and it was just great with some corn chips for dipping. My wife and daughter ate a quart the first day.

I still have about 100 tomatoes on the counter top ripening. These are Plum and cherry tomatoes, so they aren't huge in size. Great in salads or just popping in the mouth.

[Avonnow]

Yes Florida too had freezing, even here on the island which is usually tropical - I covered everything and still lost three huge tomato plants, not near what you had, but I have a window sill and some containers full of green/ partial red tomatos. Not sure what to do next, It was beautiful today, and some plants did fine, I am going to look into a hardy tomato plant for next year. I also noticed the plants on my pool patio did not freeze, it was about 8 degrees warmer in there and they seem fine. I need to learn something from this, not sure what but I know I should be able to get more time here in FL. That salsa sounds good, your pretty creative. I only thought of fried green tomatos.

[froggy]

after 2 years of only getting green tomatoes I think I am giving up on them... the ruddy squirrels had more (green) tomato than I did this year and what they didnt eat, they dug up... grrrr
and again my hubby picked a place with a northwest balcony - so I see more green in my future...
I'm thinking I should just stick with plants that don't require loads of direct sunlight.... bye bye tomatoes...

[thanrose]

Yes Florida too had freezing, even here on the island which is usually tropical - ... I also noticed the plants on my pool patio did not freeze, it was about 8 degrees warmer in there and they seem fine. I need to learn something from this, not sure what but I know I should be able to get more time here in FL. That salsa sounds good, your pretty creative. I only thought of fried green tomatos.

Sherry, just as the large bodies of water on the east and west of you keep you more tropical, your pool has a moderating effect on the temp. Did you ever notice on the few bitterly cold days that your pool will have a fog over it? Happens all the time with the springs up my way. On bone chilling days, you can ID the spring fed ponds because they are a couple of degrees or more warmer than other ground water locations. Fog, sometimes dense, over them. In ground pools, because of the insulating walls, retain some warmth longer than the above ground pool down the block.

So western walls of homes will be warmer from stored heat of the day before, any home exterior wall will be warmer than twenty feet out into the yard, masonry or concrete patios/lanais will store heat, and inground pools will. If you can move all your 'matas to those areas or adjacent, you gain a few degrees of protection, definitely worthwhile for Floridians with rare freezes. The things I didn't want to move I just surrounded with buckets of tap water. A little less protection, but we are only talking a few degrees here and there.

Salsa verde, fried green tomatoes, green tomato pie, pickled green tomatoes, and possibly green tomato fruit leather are all good uses of an abundance of green tomatoes. The fruit leather I haven't made in thirty years, but I know I used cinnamon in it. I know I made a gazpacho with green tomatoes once, but don't recall if I liked it, or what else was in it.

[applestar]

Gumbo, that all sounds yummy! My boxes of ripening tomatoes are nearly at the end. I'm going to pick through them and consolidate to final last box, then that's it. But I have gallons of can't get any redder, picked at peak of freshness toms in the freezer to enjoy for the rest of the winter, not to mention jars of processed toms in the cupboard.

Froggy, with your northerly location, you get more daylight duing the summer at least. You'll probably have more luck with the shortest days to maturity tomato varieties, and if you start the seeds earlier and rig some protection for the seedlings so you can set them out earlier in spring --as soon as your patio starts to get decent amount of sun. It's easier to protect seedlings than to try to protect full grown plants at the end of the season.

[garden5]

Wow, that sounds really good. Most folks think that just about the only thing green tomatoes are good for is pan-frying....far from it, really. You can make a lot of things with green tomatoes, especially things that call for tart ingredients.

[Gary350]

I saw a TV show a few years ago it may have been NOVA on NPT. They showed some hydride tomato plants growing in snow I believe they said the plants do fine at -30 degrees F below zero. It would be nice to have plants that will not freeze but I worry about eating things that are not natural.

[gumbo2176]

Boy, did I miscalculate. I had enough green tomatoes to fill 24 pint jars full of Salsa Verde, 8 hot, 8 moderately hot, and 8 mild.

Then I had to go out and buy another dozen pint jars and filled them with the sliced green tomatoes and made a bread and butter pickling brine and put them up. AND I still have a gallon bag of sliced tomatoes left I'll give away to a friend to do whatever she wants to with them.

My house smells like a Mexican restaurant right now with the Cumin, jalapenos, and hot chile's cooking most of the morning. I'll post the Salsa Verde recipe I used in the appropriate forum.