This spring I experimented and planted my first-ever cherry tomato plant. A few hours after I put the plant in the ground, we had an unexpected storm with high winds. My poor tomato plant looked ragged and spindly by the end of the day and I didn’t think it was going to survive.
I made a makeshift “greenhouse” for what was left of the plant by tying a clear garbage bag over and around the tomato cage. I left the garbage bag tied around the wire cage for a few weeks and I watered the plant regularly, hoping it would come back. My efforts were well rewarded as I have been blessed with an abundance of delicious cherry tomatoes from my one experimental plant.
Today I harvested most of the tomatoes that were remaining on the plant. I never guessed one plant could result in so many tomatoes! Now to find a recipe so these beauties don’t go to waste. If you have a go-to recipe for red and/or green tomatoes, I’d love to know about it.
Oh, nothing is better than FOOD for one’s own ground! It is my impression that those green tomatoes will ripen, extending your harvest season by weeks.. You can lay the vines in a sunny window and use the red ones first. My husband eats the cherry tomatoes like candy, from a dish at his elbow as he watches tv. I add them to canned sauces for spaghetti or pizza, to add a bit of freshness and acidity.
Oh, that is so cool. I planted some tomatoes (big boy-6 plants) and came up with 2 cherry tomatoes. LOL
Beautiful harvest! My 5 little spindly plants also went crazy and we’ve been eating fresh tomatoes for weeks and weeks. Search for green tomato recipes online. Yummly is a great site with thousands of recipes and search for green tomatoes on there for your green ones. There’s green tomato relish, green tomato pie (believe it!), etc. I made freezer salsa with one of my big batches of red and orange tomatoes and it’s really good. I just searched for “freezer tomato salsa”.. there’s also a peach tomato salsa that looks really good. There tomato relish too. I have a great recipe my mom used to make for chili sauce (but not hot or spicey) that we would put over our meatloaf and pork. So good! If you want to ripen the green tomatoes that don’t have any color on them (they usually won’t even ripen on a window sill) wrap each one in some newspaper and then put them in a paper bag and keep in a dark place. It’ll take a couple of weeks, but they WILL ripen! I’ve had fresh tomatoes at Christmas before that were the green ones I took from the vines before a big freeze got them! Have fun! And yes… just eating the sweet cherry tomatoes is what I love to do too and they are great in salads. Or…. cut in half, put on a plate, sprinkle with salt, then some olive oil and top with sprinkled parmesean cheese. Yummy!
Thank you for the excellent ideas, ladies!
Sharon, I like your husband’s idea to eat them like candy – much healthier than a sugary snack.
Marilyn S., I’m sorry to hear that your tomato plants didn’t yield more than a couple “cherry’ tomatoes. I planted two raspberry plants and got about 5 raspberries off the two plants but those were five delicious raspberries. I’m hoping they come back stronger and healthier next year.
Marilyn McLeod, I love the idea of a homemade chili sauce. Thank you for the idea to wrap them in newspaper to ripen. I’ve never heard of that but will certainly give it a try if I don’t use all the green tomatoes in recipes.
Wow what a harvest. I am sure I could find you a recipe for green tomato chutney:)
Sorry, no recipes from me, but I love your still life photo! And I love that pan your beautiful tomatoes are in!
Kathy
Thank you Angela.
Thanks Kathy. I love the pan too. It’s a roaster with a lid. My daughter-in-law bought it at a garage sale for me this summer.