It's Easy Being Green

Summer has definitely come to a close for 2010 and many gardeners are left wondering what to do with all those leftover green tomatoes. We had many ourselves and then also acquired three more boxes from a gardener who had quite the bumper crop of green tomatoes that they didn’t want to mess with.

Green tomatoes can be left to ripen. The process is slow but if you have the space, you can enjoy red ripe tomatoes in the dead of winter.  In the book Root Cellaring: Natural Cold Storage of Fruits and Vegetables, it is recommended that you store green tomatoes in a single layer, out of direct sunlight in a 60 to 70 degree room.  Green tomatoes can hold for several weeks in the 50 to 60 degree range, delaying ripening even more.  We’ve had good luck ripening green tomatoes with the stem end facing down on a bed of crinkled newspaper.  Homestead Hottie has beat into my head that the tomatoes need to be checked ever few days and turned to prevent them from getting too soft on one side and molding.  If let go, it will spoil your whole box of summer stretched into the winter.  A couple I’ve let go have gone airborne across the kitchen at me and believe me, you don’t want to get hit in the face with a rotten tomato!

If you’re impatient and would prefer trying another treat with green tomatoes, you might want to consider pickled green tomatoes.  The odd pickles can be used as an accompaniment to hamburgers, roasted chicken and charcuterie.  Tied with a red ribbon, they’re pretty enough to give as a hostess gift or to bring to a holiday party so you can share a taste of your summer garden after it’s long gone.  Here is a recipe that was printed in the 2009-2010 winter edition of Organic Gardening Magzine:

Pickled Green Tomatoes

1.5 quarts white wine vinegar
1.5 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
4 cloves of garlic, sliced thin
2 pounds green tomatoes sliced into wedges 1/2 to 3/4 inches thick
1/2 cup fresh tarragon leaves, stems removed

Combine vinegar, sugar, salt and garlic in a stainless steel saucepan and bring to a boil. Once sugar is completely dissolved add in tomatoes. Simmer over low heat for about 10 minutes until the tomatoes are tender. Don’t let them get mushy!

Strain the tomatoes but reserve the pickling liquid. Add tarragon to the reserved pickling liquid. Refrigerate both the drained tomatoes and the pickling liquid in separate containers until cool and then combine. Spoon into lidded glass jars and refrigerate for up to 3 months.

A month into the pickling process, I’ve already dipped into one of my two jars.  I’ve found the pickled green tomatoes to be sweetly sour, a combination of the vinegar and sugar.  I think I might try a jar or two without the sugar to see what the end result is because I’m not a fan of sweetly pickled products with the exception of cinnamon pickles, a completely different jarred treat to discuss in another post.

Do you have a favorite recipe or way to use up green tomatoes?  Share your ideas and inspirations so others don’t let those green tomatoes go to waste!

Popularity: 11% [?]

If you’re looking to green up your New Year’s celebration with some eco-friendly bubbly, the selection is still pretty slim.  Not many in viticulture (growing grapes for wine) have jumped on the eco-bandwagon.  But there are a few lines out there that might be worth a shot.  Look for these options at your local wine shop:

1)  Dom. de Montbourgeau Cremant du Jura – $21.99 Hand-harvested grapes come from an eight-hectare farm run by the founder’s granddaughter.

2)  Avinyo Cava Rosado - $25.99 Four small organic farms supply the winery; the winemaker consults a 300-year-old book for farming tips.

3) Foreau Vouvray Brut – $26.99 12-hectare farm managed organically; yields intentionally held down to privilege quality over quantity.

4) François Pinon Vouvray Petillant Brut - $20.99 Supplied by 14 hectares of organically managed land, with a variety of microclimates and soil types.

Are you looking for a quick, homemade hostess gift to whip up for a New Year’s party you might be headed to?  Read my post on Homemade Liquers and Cordials.  They would make a tasty option.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Now that it’s getting colder outside, we’ve had an influx of fruit flies inside our house.  We’ve always got fresh product around so the little buggers who hitched a ride home constantly find the nourishment they need to reproduce.  We’ve prevented some of the madness by putting produce away in dark cupboards that the flies don’t have access to instead of keeping things in a fruit basket on the counter.  But there are still a pesky few that can breed into dozens of fruit flies and just drive you nuts.

A quick and eco-friendly way to get rid of the fruit flies is to pour red wine into a small container like a bowl or a cup.  Cover the top of the container with saran wrap and then poke a few small holes into the top.  The idea is that the flies will be attracted to the fruity scent of the wine, crawl through the holes in the middle of the saran wrap and not be able to get back out.  My fiance discovered this trick and put it into play and sure enough it works like a charm.  We keep our fruit fly trap by the kitchen sink. So everytime I go to the sink and see some inside, I give the bowl a good swish.  That knocks the fruit flies into the wine where they eventually drown and don’t reproduce.  Also, pour boiling hot water down your drains.  Apparently fruit flies like to lay their eggs and reproduce in the sludge that can buildup in your sink drains.

Do you have a natural and chemical-free way to get rid of pests in your home or garden?

Popularity: 2% [?]

When we ran to Sam’s Club the other day we perused the wine selection like we always do. We’ll typically pick up a bottle or two to enjoy over the next couple of weeks. One half bottle practically jumped off the shelf at us. The frosted black bottle of German Eiswein Nachtgold looked mysterious and the description on the bottle sounded downright tasty!

“These precious grapes from which we press our Ice-wine are harvested in the early morning hours when it’s still dark and frozen. Our vintners therefore call this noble and sweet wine “Nachtgold” which means “Gold of the Night”.

The wine hails from the Rheinhessen region of Germany where there are about 26,000 hectacres of vineyards.  It’s known as the largest viticulture region in Germany.  This Eiswein is produced when temperatures in the vineyard drop to 19 degrees Fahrenheit or what they consider a “hard freeze”.  In the darkness, the grapes are harvested frozen and immediately crushed because the water inside the grapes is still frozen, leaving the vintner with a golden yellow liquid to ferment.  It maintains a golden-yellow color after maturation and leaves intense aromas of apple, peaches and melons.  It has a rich mouth feel and a smooth sweetness of caramel or honey.  We loved it.  I highly recommend this dessert wine if you run across it sometime.

Popularity: 29% [?]