Looking for Green Tomatoes: What to do with your green tomatoes - canning, pickling, salsa and more! Easy step-by-step directions! in 2025?  Scroll down this page and  follow the links. And if you bring home some fruit or vegetables and want to can, freeze, make jam, salsa or pickles, see this page for simple, reliable, illustrated canning, freezing or preserving directions. There are plenty of other related resources, click on the resources dropdown above.  If you are having a hard time finding canning lids, I've used these, and they're a great price & ship in 2 days.

If you have questions or feedback, please let me know! There are affiliate links on this page.  Read our disclosure policy to learn more. 

Green Tomatoes: What to do with your green tomatoes - canning, pickling, salsa and more! Easy step-by-step directions!

Green Tomatoes: What to do with your green tomatoes!

Green Tomatoes: How to use unripe tomatoes - simple, safe canning, preserving, pickling, salsa and other recipes

Whether frost is just around the corner or it is early in the season and tomatoes haven't ripened yet, green tomatoes, that's right: unripe tomatoes, can actually be used to make a wide variety of foods and preserved for later use.  There's more to a green tomato recipe than just "fried green tomatoes"!

Store and Ripen Green Tomatoes:

First, if you want to bring your green tomatoes indoors before a freeze in the Fall, and ripen them, see:

• How to ripen your green garden tomatoes indoors in the Fall and Winter.

Freeze Green Tomatoes:

Freezing green tomatoes is easy.  They will be too soggy for use in a salad, BUT you can use them later to make fried green tomatoes:

1. Select firm, sound green tomatoes, free of damage and blemishes.
2. Wash, then slice the top 1/4 off (where the stem attaches)
3. Cut out the woody core (if any, and slice 1/4-inch thick.
4. Pack the slices into containers with freezer wrap between the slices.
5. Seal and freeze.
6. After they are frozen, you can transfer them to a vacuum sealer bag and remove any excess air (which causes freezer burn!)

Can, Preserve, Pickle, etc.

Here are links to canning/preserving and fresh use recipes for green tomatoes:

• How to make salsa from your unripe, GREEN tomatoes!
• How to make Tomatillo salsa (or Green Tomato Salsa)
• Spiced Green tomatoes
• Pickled Green Tomatoes - another pickled green tomato recipe, this one sweet
• And of course: from the Food Network: Fried Green Tomatoes

The USDA points out: Do not can tomatoes from dead or frost-killed vines. Green tomatoes are more acidic than ripened fruit and can be canned safely in place of ripe tomatoes.