What to do with green tomatoes in autumn.

If you grow tomatoes, you'll know the drill: as autumn approaches, the last harvest doesn't ripen, and even a single, productive plant is left with several pounds of green tomatoes. Giving these green tomatoes another chance outdoors on the plant makes little sense. They'll either fall victim to the birds (which is, of course, also an option) or the autumn weather. So, what to do?

We at the Marble Garden are having exactly these thoughts, because our "green harvest" is abundant this year.

Green tomatoes contain solanine.

Green tomatoes contain a toxic alkaloid called solanine. Consuming more than about 600 grams can cause initial symptoms of poisoning. Proper preparation of the green vegetable is therefore important. Raw green tomatoes already taste sour and bitter, so not particularly palatable.

How can we process green tomatoes?

We gathered several processing methods from the neighborhood to make the green tomatoes edible again.

The simplest method is certainly to ripen the tomatoes until they are red. For this, the unripe tomatoes are carefully cleaned and patted dry, then placed on newspaper in a warm (ideally relatively humid) place. An apple placed nearby will accelerate ripening due to the ethylene gas it releases. It is important during this ripening process to discard any cracked or rotten tomatoes, as rot can spread.

A neighbor with Italian roots gratefully accepted some tomatoes to pickle in salt and vinegar . A recipe for this can be found, for example, here: https://www.smarticular.net/gruene-tomaten-einlegen/ .

Another way to make green tomatoes edible is to ferment them . A recipe for this can be found, for example, here: https://www.krautundrueben.de/gruene-tomaten-milchsauer-einlegen-das-rezept . It states: "High heat does not affect the solanine in green tomatoes. The only way to neutralize some of the alkaloid is to ferment the tomatoes with lactic acid, similar to sauerkraut."

More ideas and recipes

There are many other ways to prepare green tomatoes. We list a few examples here and include further internet resources:

1. Leave to ripen in the open air and in a warm environment
2. Cut into small pieces and pickle in salt and vinegar.
3. Lactic acid pickling
4. Allow to mature further in clay pots
5. Deep frying
6. Process into chutney

You can find more recipes and ideas on these websites, for example:

[1] https://www.sueddeutsche.de/stil/tomaten-gemuesekueche-gruene-tomaten-chutney-1.5685369

[2] https://www.krautundrueben.de/tomaten-nachreifen-lassen

[3] https://www.ndr.de/ratgeber/garten/Gruene-Tomaten-nachreifen-lassen,nachreifen101.html