Walking through my Northwest Philly neighborhood on the way to work this morning, I noticed two things: air brisk enough to make me look like Puff the Magic Dragon and tons of forlorn green or semi-ripe tomatoes, hanging sadly from their cages and trellises.
In green, green Germantown, it seemed like nearly every block had a bushel of the unharvested fruit awaiting the final cold snap—one that looks likely to come this week as temps dip below freezing. Once the tomatoes freeze and thaw, all those burst cells inside will leave the meat mushy and unappealing.
But if you have a bunch of green tomatoes in the backyard because you (like me) couldn’t bring yourself to rip out this year’s bushes, this is your last shot to turn them into something wonderful: GREEN TOMATO JAM!