Well, I waited as long as I could to take out all the summer vegetable plants, especially the tomato plants that were looking pretty sad but still had plenty of fruit. I thought the tomatoes would get ripe since we have been getting some 90-degree temperatures lately, but nothing is happening on those bushes, nada. The tomatoes are just sitting happily on the vines, doing absolutely nothing. They are just green, and it looks like time stood still. I couldn’t stand it anymore, and finally this past weekend I harvested all the green tomatoes and chopped down the tomato plants. I noticed with a batch of green tomatoes that we harvested a couple of weeks ago, that when they sit in a bowl indoors they do slowly start ripening. I’ll do the same with this last tomato harvest of the season.

Looking at these green tomatoes I recalled a movie I watched years ago back in 1991 called Fried Green Tomatoes. I remembered liking the movie a lot as it had a great storyline set in Alabama about an unlikely friendship between a young waitress at a local diner and an elderly lady she volunteers to give company to at a Senior Citizen’s Home. I also remembered that it was the first time I had heard of fried green tomatoes.

The original novel

The movie

I’ve never had fried green tomatoes and thought now would be the perfect time to try some. I took a couple of the green tomatoes I just harvested and made fried green tomatoes for the first time at home.

The recipe I followed is from the web site SimpleyRecipes.com. Here is the link  Fried Green Tomatoes  I improvised a little and substituted Greek yogurt for buttermilk, and used cream of wheat instead of corn meal.

Fried green tomatoes are crunchy on the outside and juicy and sour on the inside. Kind of reminds me of eggplant breaded patties, except these fried green tomatoes have a lot more flavor. It’s an acquired taste for sure, the more you have it, the more you like it.

Try making fried green tomatoes at least once, and see if it is something you would like to add to your late summer recipe repertoire.

Back to the topic of late summer cleanup in the garden. While I was chopping down my tomato plants, I cut down my dahlia plants as well. My dahlia plants had leaves that were all yellowing and they were ready to go dormant from the looks of it. I cut what blooms were on the plants, and made a small bouquet to enjoy indoors. The rest of the bush went in the debris pile. I left the dahlia tubers in the ground with a little of the stalk sticking out so I know where they are when I grow new plants in that patch.

On the plus side, I saw my eggplant with some veggies on it. And you know what? The eggplants are white! I didn’t realize I had bought a white eggplant seedling back in the spring.  I have a very small crop – about 6 eggplants, but I’ll take what I can get. Squash plants are looking healthy but I have no idea if they will still give me any veggies, have to wait and see. I saw my potato plants coming back and even some potatoes ready to grow bigger.

It’s time to head back to the nursery to see what fall veggies are available for planting.  The gardening affair continues… 😊🌻🌺🍄🌷