It’s late October in my first year growing from seed, and I’ve had such a great year that I shouldn’t complain.
Unfortunately, the plants are starting to die back, nothing is turning red and I have hundreds of little unfinished green guys that will never see the light of a salad.
Is this what I should expect? I hate to see the waste.
by This_isnt_important
4 Comments
Yes, it is what you should expect.
I made a green tomato relish this year, which was really tasty. You can find a ton of recipes online and you can can it and use it all year. Of course there’s always fried green tomatoes, but there’s only so many of those you can eat. You can cut them in half and throw them them them in your compost pile.
In my experience, as soon as they start to ripen, they’ll ripen on your countertop. Before cold snaps, I’ll go out and pick everything that’s got even the smallest hint of changing color.
Those still look promising! And this is completely normal for this time of year. Not sure what your weather is looking like, but you could cut them all off and put them on a large plate or similar. They’ll ripen over the next couple weeks.
I just did this to ours a week or so ago. Rains were coming and nights were dipping into the 40s so time to end the season. Making a batch of tomato sauce today with a bunch that are finally ripe. Still have a good amount of green ones and may try making a roasted salsa.
I picked everything green off a plant a couple weeks ago, laid them out and was so surprised how many ended up ripening a week or so later.
Think of it as an experiment and a learning experience!