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Do you pick green tomatoes?

8K views 13 replies 14 participants last post by  huntfishsleep5 
#1 ·
I am wondering how many people pick their tomatoes when they are green? Or do you let them ripen on the vine?

Certain tomatoes, like grape tomatoes should be left on the vine to ripen. The grape tomatoes will not get sweet if picked too early.

Yesterday I picked 3 rather large green tomatoes and they are sitting on the window seal. The plants still have some big tomatoes on them, I might leave them and let them ripen on the vine.
 
#5 ·
I love fried green tomatoes too. Our family does it 2 ways. We pick green tomatoes and wrap them in newspaper. Place them in a box under the bed. We check them once a week and take out the ripening ones to eat.

If you live in a cool area, but not freezing, you can pull up the whole plant and hang it upside down in the garage. This lets them ripen until the first heavy frost. I'm not sure how either of these ways would work in Texas.

I know that green tomatoe catchup is made from green tomatoes. Duuuuuuhhhhhh!
 
#6 ·
I am wondering how many people pick their tomatoes when they are green? Or do you let them ripen on the vine?

Yesterday I picked 3 rather large green tomatoes and they are sitting on the window seal. The plants still have some big tomatoes on them, I might leave them and let them ripen on the vine.
It makes a HUGE difference if you put newspaper under the tomatoes. (Don't just store them on a surface that is painted / tiled whatever.) And I generally find they ripen better if I place them upside down. (Shares the load, instead of putting all the pressure on one spot.)

Of course vine-ripened are magic, but there's not much difference in taste with those ripening on newspaper. We always pick the really big ones when they are green instead of waiting for them to ripen ... simply to allow the oncoming ones to get more goodness and growth.

We currently have about 40 spread on newspapers in various places throughout the house. Some in the kitchen, some alongside the fire, and some undercover outdoors.
:)

PS. Try not to pick them all on the same day ... unless you want them all ready simultaneously for pasta sauce.
 
#7 ·
If you like green tomatoes, pick them. However... a tomato will never be any sweeter than when you pick it. In other words, it may turn from green to red on the windowsill but that chemical reaction is totally separate from the sweetness of the tomato. It will also be more flavorful the longer you leave it on the vine. Now, there are times when you have to pick: disease, frost, partial damage by those damned possoms or occasional mocking birds. But, generally said, the longer on the vine the more flavor and sweetness. That green tomato in the window will turn red but its flavor won't improve.
 
#8 ·
We used to pick the BIG green ones when they started getting a little red, put them on the windowsill on some newspaper, and let them ripen as best they could from there.

With our soil, the darned things would grow so fast on the vine that they'd nearly always split open if left to ripen on their own.
 
#10 ·
Funny I just got done picking some. I do both and it depends on how much we are eating and if bugs/birds are eating them. Also if they are close to the ground I pick em green.

Grill cheese and tomatoe anyone?

I love having my home grown tomatoes with the big scar thats going around with them right now! :)
 

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#11 · (Edited)
I enjoy eating green tomatoes if and when I can get them. The red tomatoes are easy to find down here in the deep south. I didn't grow any this year, b/c the birds got so many of mine last year. Also, a swarm of squash bugs invaded my garden and the reccomended sevin dust that I put out, didn't seem to bother them too much. Tsk...
 
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