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Red Bucket Farm is an urban farm on a quarter acre property in an average residential neighborhood. We are located in Wisconsin, USDA Zone 5. We focus on chickens, bees, orchard fruit, and raised garden beds for fruits and veggies. We hope to reduce our footprint on the planet by growing some of our food, reducing our use of fossil fuels, and gardening with sustainable practices. Thanks for visiting!

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Green Tomatoes


In the last week or so, I have harvested about fifteen pounds of large, green tomatoes. Autumn has arrived and night temperatures have fallen to 30 degrees. I was reluctant to allow so many tomatoes to potentially freeze over night, so I picked them and brought them indoors.

There are various techniques that might allow green tomatoes to ripen indoors. Some people wrap each tomato individually in newspaper and store in a dark place. Other folks store them in an airtight container with an apple. My mother-in-law used to advise storing them in a paper bag until ripe.

Given various complications these days, I've opted for the easy choice: my green tomatoes sit on open trays in the pie safe to keep the cats from turning them into hockey pucks. After a few days they turn red and orange, and we pop them into whatever we're making for dinner. It's low tech, but effective. The fruit may not be quite as tasty as when sun-ripened, but it's better than losing the end of the crop to frost.

What are you doing with your end-of-season green tomatoes?

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