This spring I planted four tomato plants in the back corner of my mostly inactive garden, hoping for an abundance of red, ripe garden-grown tomatoes. But I guess I was a little late planting them. And then there was a drought, which didn't help matters.
The garden thus produced only two ripe tomatoes for me this year, and left me with a whole bunch of green tomatoes that have absolutely no chance of ripening before frost.
To say I was disappointed in my gardening efforts, would be understating things a bit. Nothing in my opinion is better about summer than a garden-ripe tomato. Slice one up on a plate, alternating with fresh mozzarella cheese, some olive oil, fresh-squeezed lemon juice and fresh-cracked black pepper. This is such a superb lunch, one I could eat every day.
Now I do remember how once upon a girlhood my grandmother would make bacon, lettuce, fried green tomato sandwiches. And those were good. She usually made them at the beginning of the season, to celebrate the ripe tomatoes soon to be had. I went to rescue a green fall tomato to eat a sentimental dinner in her honor, though I wasn't feeling too celebratory about it. Rooting around in the still healthy tomato plants, I was saddened by just how many green tomatoes there really were. Easily 7 quarts.
How sad, I thought, to just waste them. But frost was coming, and there are really only so many BLGT sandwiches a girl is willing to eat. If they were just a little further along ... But ripening such green tomatoes ...
Well, that's just about as substandard as it gets, to me anyway.
Out of idle curiosity I googled green tomato recipes as I munched on my BLGT. There surely couldn't be much ... could there?
I was actually surprised. Curried pork stirfries, asian pear salads ... people had some really creative ideas for their green tomatoes.
And so I started think ...
The garden thus produced only two ripe tomatoes for me this year, and left me with a whole bunch of green tomatoes that have absolutely no chance of ripening before frost.
To say I was disappointed in my gardening efforts, would be understating things a bit. Nothing in my opinion is better about summer than a garden-ripe tomato. Slice one up on a plate, alternating with fresh mozzarella cheese, some olive oil, fresh-squeezed lemon juice and fresh-cracked black pepper. This is such a superb lunch, one I could eat every day.
Now I do remember how once upon a girlhood my grandmother would make bacon, lettuce, fried green tomato sandwiches. And those were good. She usually made them at the beginning of the season, to celebrate the ripe tomatoes soon to be had. I went to rescue a green fall tomato to eat a sentimental dinner in her honor, though I wasn't feeling too celebratory about it. Rooting around in the still healthy tomato plants, I was saddened by just how many green tomatoes there really were. Easily 7 quarts.
How sad, I thought, to just waste them. But frost was coming, and there are really only so many BLGT sandwiches a girl is willing to eat. If they were just a little further along ... But ripening such green tomatoes ...
Well, that's just about as substandard as it gets, to me anyway.
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| More green tomato recipe ideas collected at My Green Tomato Pinterest board |
I was actually surprised. Curried pork stirfries, asian pear salads ... people had some really creative ideas for their green tomatoes.
And so I started think ...
