There’s a moment near the end of tomato season when it can look like your garden is full of food you didn’t quite get to grow.
The vines are still holding green tomatoes, cooler weather is moving in, and you’re left wondering whether to wait, bring them inside, or find another way to use them.
But an unripe tomato isn’t necessarily an unfinished harvest. Green tomatoes can become an end-of-season harvest of their own, with flavors and uses that are different from the ripe tomatoes you’ve been enjoying all summer. Green tomatoes can be used in salsa, hot sauce, or refrigerator quick pickles, while tomatoes that have already started changing color may continue ripening indoors.
But green tomatoes aren’t the most surprising part of this end-of-season harvest. In the video below, you’ll see what else Stacey notices on the plant before it’s cleared from the garden.
When Do Tomato Plants Stop Setting Fruit?
As summer shifts toward fall, your tomato plants begin responding to the changing conditions around them.
Once temperatures are regularly dropping below about 50°F, you may notice that your plants are no longer setting new fruit.
That’s a useful signal from the garden. Instead of waiting for the plant to keep producing as it did during warmer weather, you can begin looking at what’s already there and deciding how you’d like to use it.
What Can You Do With Green Tomatoes Besides Frying Them?
Green tomatoes haven’t developed the same sweetness as ripe tomatoes, and they also have less moisture. That gives you some different possibilities for using them in the kitchen.
Fried green tomatoes may be the familiar choice, but they’re certainly not the only one. In the training, Stacey shares several other possibilities:
• green tomato salsa
• green tomato hot sauce
• quick-pickled green tomatoes
Depending on what you’re making and your own taste preferences, you might choose to add a little sweetness to balance the green tomatoes. Or you may discover that you like them tart.
Learning how to use what’s actually growing in front of you is part of becoming more confident in the garden.
Can You Preserve Green Tomatoes at the End of the Season?
One simple way to keep green tomatoes a little longer is to turn them into refrigerator quick pickles. In the video, explore green salsa and green hot sauce as ways to use tomatoes that haven’t ripened by the end of the season.
Quick pickling can be especially approachable because you don’t need to turn it into a large preservation project.
One of the ideas demonstrated is a curried quick pickle made with small green cherry tomatoes.
How Do You Make Quick-Pickled Green Tomatoes?
In this version, small green cherry tomatoes are sliced in half so the flavors can infuse the tomatoes. The pickling liquid uses a 1:1 ratio of apple cider vinegar to water, which is heated before being added to the jars.
The flavor combination used in the training includes:
fresh ginger + cumin + allspice + turmeric + salt
The turmeric used in the original recipe had been grown in the garden, dried, and chopped before being added to the mixture.
If you enjoy a sweeter flavor, you could experiment with a little maple syrup. If tart and sour flavors are more your style, you may prefer them without it.
After about two days, the tomatoes begin taking on the flavors of the quick pickle.
This is a refrigerator quick pickle, rather than a shelf-stable canning recipe. It’s simply another way to enjoy some of those green tomatoes a little longer.
Can Green Tomatoes Ripen After You Pick Them?
If a tomato has already started changing color, you can continue the ripening process indoors.
Bring those tomatoes inside, put them in a paper bag on the counter, and allow them to continue ripening off the vine. That gives you another option when you’re looking over the last tomatoes of the season.
Some may have started changing color and can be brought indoors. Others may still be completely green and ready to become something different in the kitchen.
Before You Clear Your Tomato Plants for Fall
The end of tomato season doesn’t have to be a rush to clear everything away. Take a moment to notice what’s still growing.
Some tomatoes may have started changing color and can continue ripening indoors. Others may still be completely green and ready to become salsa, hot sauce, or quick pickles.
Working with the garden means noticing what the season has given you and deciding how you’d like to use it.
Sometimes the transition from summer into fall gives us an opportunity to use more of what we’ve grown before clearing the garden for the next season.
If you haven’t watched the video above yet, take a few minutes to see these end-of-season ideas in action, including one especially unusual way to use more of your tomato plant.
And we’d love to hear from you: What do you do with the last green tomatoes from your garden? Share your favorite use in the comments below.
🍅 Want More Help Growing Great Tomatoes?
Tomatoes can keep us learning all season long, from the first flowers and fruit to those final green tomatoes hanging on the vine.
If you’d like more help getting the most from your tomato plants, we’ve gathered some of our tomato-growing resources in one place to help you grow with more confidence and enjoy more of your harvest.
