Can green tomatoes be frozen? We love fried green tomatoes and we have a lot of green tomatoes that we hate to throw away. I was wondering if they can be saved by freezing.

--Don

Fresh tomatoes, red or green, can be frozen by simply removing the hard portion at the stem end using a sharp paring knife.  Place the whole tomatoes in a single layer, either on a cookie sheet or in bags, in your freezer.  Freezing them in a single layer will make it easier to remove only as many as you need at a time later.  If you freeze them on a cookie sheet, transfer them to plastic bags for long term storage.

To thaw, place as many as you need into a bowl and leave in the fridge, covered, overnight or defrost them gently in the microwave.  The skins will peel off easily and the tomatoes can be used for any recipe where canned or fresh tomatoes are cooked until soft, such as sauces or stews.

Frozen green tomatoes can likely not be used for making fried green tomatoes, however, as the cell damage from freezing will cause them to release a large amount of water.  In turn, this will cause the breading to come off during cooking.  Also, the tomatoes themselves likely be too mushy.