Joe picked them all and brought them in the house in a 5 gal. bucket. I carefully washed them and picked them over. We had fried green tomatoes and then I took the rest downstairs to our cool basement and laid them out on top of newspaper sheets. Then I covered them with another light layer.
When I checked them yesterday...this is what I found. Like magic...they are ripening. They say to only use tomatoes that have some pinkish color on them, but I used them all...even those little, hard, green ones. Now we will have tomatoes on our plates again.
If we can't eat them fast enough I will roast some of them. Simply toss them with some olive oil, salt, pepper, and a splash of balsamic vinegar, spread them on a heavy duty rimmed baking sheet lined with parchment paper... and roast at 450° for 30 or 40 minutes, or until you like how they look.This is a high temp. so keep an eye on them.There are so many methods for ripening in the house. In paper bags, with a banana, cardboard boxes, kitchen drawers what ever you choose...they need darkness and a cool place. Tomatoes give off ethylene gas witch stimulates ripening.Keeping them in a closed place, in the dark, keeps the gas from escaping and encourages the tomato to ripen faster.We only had a few tomato plants, so there aren't many left over, but this will save me from having to buy them from the store for a time. I'm going to try to roast some of the store bought ones...to see if they will have more flavor.Back in the day, I canned them and made a delicious chili sauce that made the whole house smell wonderful.Spicy chili sauce sitting on the plate next to a slice of wonderful beef roast...now that's eating!
If you'd like my Mom's recipe for Chili Sauce...just ask..
Balisha
6 comments:
When we were at the store last Saturday they had a very large bag of tomatoes marked down to $1. I made marinara on Sunday and it was delicious. A good many of the tomatoes were overipe and getting soft, but the recipe I used said not to worry about that. I didn't and we at good Sunday night.
Years ago when I lived at the old farm house - there was a bigger garden.
At the end of gardening time I would pull the tomatoe vines up and hang in an out building.
There would be tomatoes to eat almost until Christmas.
I am thinking about making fried green tomatoes!
Cathy
Ernestine.
We used to hang our tomatoes the same way....only in the garage. The garage was not as cold as the outdoors and they didn't freeze.
Amber
I find things marked down at the store and many times have found ways to use them.Especially peppers this year. They are so expensive later on. A good marinara sounds delicious.
Cathy.
Have you ever made them? I love them, but Joe not so much.
I told Fred the same thing,"this year tomatoes have no taste." I too thought I was losing my taste buds, but I think it was just the growing season this year.
Our tomatoes did not do well this year, and apparently we were not alone. Our weather was not very conducive.
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