Green Tomatoes

Note: I've posted a similar post to this on rec.food.cooking so if you post on both please excuse the redundancy. TIA

I talked to my relative that grows tomatoes on a large scale. He said his would be finished in less than a week and advised me to strip my vines as there was little chance of the green tomatoes ripening. I told him about the tree rats. Well I thought I might have a little more time until two of the dang tree rats were having a party this morning in the one tomato bed :( One actually sat in a nearby tree and watched me pick the tomatoes! That determined their fate right there. I left no food source for them other than some hot peppers and I really hope they munch on those .

Here's pics of the damage. They seem to go for the nicest tomatoes too :(

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I found this little critter
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large basket is about 18" diameter and 6" deep. I picked 3 of these baskets full as well as 2 of the 3 L baskets shown beside the large basket. The large tomatoes are beefsteaks and I was sure ticked to see the tree rats had got to a couple of those too. I have them ripening on

4 lg. shelves in the greenhouse. Any ideas for using up some of the green ones now?

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Reply to
~patches~
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I bought some of these pricy green tomatoes recently. I was surprised to see they finally did start to turn orange in my kitchen after some a couple weeks at room temp. I suspect they were starting to rot. Is this normal for green tomatoes to turn orange, or did I get stiffed, or will they do this under specific conditions? If so, how do you know when they are ripe?

Dominic

Reply to
Dominic-Luc Webb

The green tomatoes will ripen to their natural ripe colour. For me that means romas will ripen to a deep orangy red, beefsteaks to a deep red, brandywines to a piny red with green streaks, and mellow yellow to a bright yellow. I've never seen green tomatoes for sale around here and I sure wouldn't pay for them. Our frost date is coming up within a week and the nights are too cold for the tomatoes to ripen on the vine. That's why they were picked.

Reply to
~patches~

I googled green tomato recipes and found a good many, including one for tea bread. Since I needed tea bread I made it. It's quite good.

Mix:

1 c oil 3 eggs 2 c sugar 2 t vanilla 2 c ground green tomato

Sift together and stir in:

3 c flour 1 t soda 1 t salt 1/2 t baking powder 1/4 t cloves 1/4 t nutmeg 2 1/2 t cinnamon

Put in 2 oiled pans and bake 1 hour at 325. (I used 5 miniloaves and baked them 40 minutes.)

Reply to
Kathy

Thanks for your thoughts. So any ideas regarding my original questions?

Q1) Do green tomatoes ever turn orange/red as they mature or was I sold some other type of tomato that was not ripe?

Q2) How does one determine when green tomatos are ripe?

Thanks in advance,

Dominic

Reply to
Dominic-Luc Webb

Yes they do if they are mature and are not a variety of green tomato. Even the "green" varieties will turn yellow.

In the US, stores will sell green (unripe) tomatoes for making pickles and relishes. In the gourmet grocery stores or farmers markets you may find tomatoes are supposed to be eaten while they are green. But these will not be hard like an unripe tomato. I grow a cherry sized tomato named "Green Grape." I am planning to try a variety named "Green Zebra" next year.

They should be firm but not hard. What was the texture and taste of the ones that turned?

Reply to
The Cook

OK, then maybe what I had really were green tomatoes. I was just surprised to see the orange-red color. It was getting a bit soft as it turned this color. Taste was quite fine, mildly sweet. When these were green they tasted quite good. I got worried about the color change because of rumors that green (unripe red) tomatoes are at least mildly poisonous and perhaps carcinogenic. I have not been anxious to compare the taste of unripe (still green) red tomatoes. I have yet to look seriously into these helth allogations, but have Medline access....

Dominic

Reply to
Dominic-Luc Webb

I certainly hope not. When I was in Italy in the late '60's, they served, and I ate, a lot of green tomato salad. And they were unripe red tomatoes. Delicious. Been makin' and eatin' it ever since...(:-o)!

Later all, DustyB

Reply to
Dusty Bleher

IME yes they turn orange/red or whatever colour they are supposed to mature to. That is a yellow tomato will turn yellow.

My guideline for those I bring indoors is to let them turn orange/red then feel. If there is a little give they are ripe, if they are still very firm they aren't ripe so leave another day. Do not store in the fridge unless you want mealy tomatoes.

Reply to
~patches~

I hope not either since I just made green tomato salsa and green tomato ketchup!

Reply to
~patches~

Ummmmm! Sounds yummy!

Way ta go, "~patches~"!

DustyB

Reply to
Dusty Bleher

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