Green tomatoes!

It's amazing to look back at our tiny little green shoots that sprouted from our tomato seeds and to see how much they've grown since. The photo of my four-year old son in front of them gives you an idea of how big they grew. We've watched flowers grow then tomatoes slowly appearing and growing in size. It's been quite exciting for my son and I to track their progress and we've definitely enjoyed the experience of growing tomatoes and will try again next year. 

The tomatoes are of the San Marzano variety and a plum shape and some of them quite large. I've counted at least 30 tomatoes growing, not tons but a good yield for our very first time at growing tomatoes from seed. There's just one small problem. They are remaining a green colour and we've yet to have any turn red and ripe to enjoy. Now the weather has begun deteriotating and the hours of sunlight have decreased significantly, I'm not too confident of their chances now.

 

I know you can make green tomato chutney so I am starting to look around for recipes that I might try. I'll give them a bit longer and we'll see if there's any change. 

If you've grown tomatoes this year, have you had any issues with them not turning red? Do you have any tips for avoiding this happening again another year? Have you ever made anything with green tomatoes? Any recipes you can recommend?

Disclosure: We were sent a crate detailed in this previous post. If we blog our progress Heinz will send us a hamper full of Heinz goodies as a reward.  Head over to the Heinz Tomato Ketchup UK Facebook page for more information about Heinz Tomato Ketchup