Green Tomato Recipes

FRIED GREEN TOMATOES

2 green tomatoes ½ cup flour or cornmeal salt and pepper butter

Slice tomatoes thickly. Combine flour, salt and pepper. Coat tomatoes with flour. Heat butter in skillet and fry tomatoes on both sides until golden brown.

GREEN TOMATO SALSA

3 green tomatoes, coarsely chopped 2 jalapenos, seeded and minced 1 clove garlic, minced ¼ cup cilantro, chopped ¼ cup parsley, chopped ½ red bell pepper, seeded & chopped 3T lime juice 1½ tsp sugar ½ tsp salt

Blend all ingredients in food processor to a coarse puree. Or leave it chunky. Salsa gives off liquid and thins after it sits a while.

GREEN TOMATO AND CORN PICALILLI

3 medium green tomatoes, thinly sliced 1½ tsp salt 2 ears corn 1 cup white vinegar 1 cup sugar ¼ tsp cloves ¼ tsp cinnamon 1/8 tsp cayenne ¼ cup minced red onion 1 red bell pepper, seeded and diced

Salt tomatoes and refrigerate overnight. Pour off liquid, then dry tomatoes between paper towels. Boil corn in a pan of boiling water for 3 minutes. Drain and cut kernels from cob. In a medium saucepan combine vinegar, sugar, cloves, cinnamon and cayenne. Bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Combine tomatoes, corn, red onion and bell pepper. Pour the hot syrup over the vegetables; mix well. Let cool, then refrigerate until ready to serve.

GREEN TOMATO CHUTNEY (Joy of Cooking)

1 seeded, chopped lemon with rind 1 clove garlic, chopped 5 cups green tomatoes 2¼ cup brown sugar 1½ cup raisins 3 oz. chopped crystalized ginger or ¾ cup fresh ginger 1½ tsp salt ¼ tsp cayenne 2 cup cider vinegar 2 cup chopped red bell peppers

Combine and simmer until the vegetables are tender.

STEWED GREEN TOMATOES (Joy of Cooking)

2 tbsp minced onion 2 tbsp butter 2 cups sliced green tomatoes ¾ tsp salt ¼ tsp paprika ½ tsp curry powder

Saute onions in butter until brown. Add tomatoes. Stir and cook slowly until tender. Add seasonings.

GREEN TOMATO AND EGG GRATIN (Madison CSA cookbook)

1½ cup chopped green tomatoes 6 hard boiled eggs, sliced 5 tbsp butter ¾ cup soft bread crumbs 3 tbsp flour 1½ cup milk

Alternate layers of egg and tomatoes in a shallow baking dish. Melt 2 tbsp butter; add bread crumbs and stir well. Melt remaining butter in another saucepan. Stir in flour and cook, stirring often, 3-4 minutes. Whisk in milk and cook, stirring constantly until thickened. Pour milk mixture over tomato/egg layers. Top with bread crumbs. Bake 35-40 minutes in 350 degree oven. Can be assembled the night before and baked in the morning.

Also, I have a vague memory of baking a green tomato pie, but I can't find the recipe. I think you just bake it like an apple pie. If anyone tries this, let me know.

Frost Alert

It's supposed to frost tonight. Here are your options 

A. Cover frost sensitive plants (tomatoes, squash, eggplant, beans,  basil) with an old sheet.  Broccoli, kale, cabbage will be okay. Kale is actually sweeter after it's been touched by frost. Don't cover the plants until this evening, then remove the cover in the morning. 

B. Harvest everything you can, then call it a day

C. Dig out all your green tomato recipes. (I have some if anyone is interested)

D. If you have tons of green tomatoes and space at home, pull up the whole plant and hang it upside down. Many of the tomatoes will ripen successfully, becoming less tasty as time goes on. I don't know if this works with eggplant or beans. I'm tired of picking beans, anyway.

Compost Bins

This is the time of the year when we all have an excess of plant material and need to get rid of it. The south compost bin is almost full. There will be a work day in October and compost bins will be the main focus. Hopefully we will have lots of nice compost from the north bin to distribute in the garden. Then there will be an empty bin to begin filling again. 

 Here are a couple of suggestions to get by until then:

     * When weeding or pulling up spent vegetables, keep as much plant material as you can for your own plot. Pile it in an unused space or spread it around your plot to decompose over the winter.  

     * When putting plants in the bin, be sure to knock off ALL the soil from the roots.

      *Chop large, woody plant material into smaller pieces.

     * If the compost bin is completely full before the work day, temporarily store your plant material on your plot, then add it to the bin after the work day.

      *If you have lots of energy, climb into the bin, stomp down on the compost, and chop up the big stuff to make more room.

GARLIC

Prepare the garlic bed now. Loosen the soil and amend with compost.

Select: Grow a variety of hardneck garlic, which tends to be the hardiest in our area and the tastiest. It usually has 5-8 cloves around a hard stem. Soft neck has the cloves all the way through. Garlic from the grocery store is usually a softneck variety. Garlic from local growers is probably hardneck. Ask when you buy.

Plant in October before the ground freezes.

1 bulb of garlic cloves will likely yield 5 bulbs of garlic next year.

Plant the cloves a minimum of 6 " apart in all directions.

Plant deep (twice the depth of the clove) in well loosened, well drained soil

Always plant the clove pointy end up, root end down, or you will get a bulb that has a crooked neck and is stunted in size. It spent a considerable amount of energy turning the shoot up and the roots

down when it started to grow.

When taking the cloves from the heads of garlic, carefully break them off; ideally you want to keep some of the basal root/scale on the clove.  Plant the biggest, healthiest of the cloves; the small ones you can keep to eat. Water well.  Keep watered if the weather is dry.

The garlic will sprout this fall. This is normal. Mulch the soil after as the ground begins to freeze. You do not want mid-winter warming up. In spring the mulch can be pulled off. 

 Harvest in about mid July when the green stalks start to tip over.  Before that, in June the garlic will "flower", sending up a stem that will start to curl.  Harvest these "stems" which are called scapes, before they set seed or flower.  You can steam/stir-fry the tender top 6-10". You don't really want the garlic to flower and set seed as this takes some energy from growing big bulbs.

 Save the largest/healthiest heads for future planting next fall.