Here in Minnesota, we've had a colder than typical summer and most people's gardens are running about 2 weeks behind. The sad thing is now that its September we're probably done with those hot sunny days that send the tomatoes straight into the red zone. Instead we'll get some bursts of warmth, mixed with chilly nights and many of our tomatoes will remain green 'till the end. Sigh.
But not all is lost in the garden. We've still got plenty of cherry tomatoes slowly ripening and nice little heads of broccoli sprouting out of their stalks. We've also got carrots but since we never thinned them out, they will remain tiny little carrot nubbins - one or two bites each!
The other day we were the lucky recipients of a bunch of very ripe tomatoes from a neighbor. Since it was a chilly day (not boding well for ripening my tomatoes!), I turned on the oven and roasted them up. You don't really need a recipe although there are plenty of them out there. Just coat a baking sheet with olive oil. Cut the tomatoes in half. Swirl them around in the olive oil a bit and leave them cut side up. I also added some garlic cloves and sweet pepper slices. Roast in a 250 degree oven for a couple hours. I think I left mine for 2 1/2 hours. You'll know they are done when they are nicely shriveled and looking a bit caramelized. Use them in sauces, soups or on bruschetta. They freeze well too if you don't happen to gobble them all up right away like we did. :)
If your tomatoes are still green when it starts to freeze you can pull the whole plant up with tomatoes attached and hang them upside-down in your house or garage. They will ripen over time. We had fresh tomatoes in January one year.
Posted by: Gail | September 05, 2009 at 01:03 PM
Fresh tomatoes in January? Wow! I've heard that they will ripen in a paper bag too.
Mindful Momma
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Posted by: Micaela | September 05, 2009 at 03:31 PM
I'm oven drying cherry tomatoes today: cut in half horizontally, put cut-side up on jelly roll pan, and salted. Then in oven for 6 to 8 hours at 180 to 200 degrees F. I freeze them and make pesto with them in Jan. Spread on some nice French bread, it reminds me of summer.
Posted by: Susan | September 07, 2009 at 08:16 AM
Sounds delicious! We have tomatoes coming out of our ears right now, so I'm definitely going to try this out. You should check out Healthy Child's new Eat Healthy site and submit this as a recipe in our database! (and maybe win a prize!)
http://healthychild.org/blog/comments/celebrate_the_launch_of_eat_healthy_with_some_fantastic_events_and_cool_giv/
Posted by: Janelle Sorensen | September 14, 2009 at 06:49 PM
Thanks for your recipe - I've only ever roasted at about 450 for 10 minutes or so. I'll try the slow roast method. I've successfully ripened tomatoes in a folded paper bag this year, it works!
A friend just sent me your website, love it and already added your button to my site! I'm another Mpls Mommy forever in search of great resources.
Posted by: Niki at spilledingredients.com | September 23, 2009 at 05:04 PM