Tomatillos aren’t just green tomatoes! They’re a unique vegetable with it’s own tangy taste that’s nothing like its cousin tomato. They may not be as popular in home gardens, but those of us who do grow them have learned that they’re extremely productive and definitely deserve space in our garden beds.
Although tomatillos definitely fall into the easy to grow category, knowing when a tomatillo is ready to pick can be a lot trickier.
How Do You Know When a Tomatillo Is Ripe?
Even the most skilled gardener can feel a little confused when it comes to harvesting tomatillos. I’ve missed the harvest window myself in the past because I didn’t know how to tell when a tomatillo is ready to pick.
When growing tomatillos you’ll notice that the fruit is surrounded by a papery husk. When the fruit is just starting to develop, that husk is much larger than the fruit. If you squeeze the husk there’s a lot of space between it and the tomatillo.
As the tomatillo grows larger it eventually completely fills the hush and is even bursting out the bottom a little bit.
This is the signal that a tomatillo is ready to pick!
In my garden, when I’m in harvest mode, I scan the plant for fruit that looks like it’s completely filled the husk. If I can’t tell visually, I squeeze the tomatillo, if there’s space between the fruit and husk I don’t harvest it.
Easy peasy!
I do have one caveat around harvesting tomatillos. If you leave them too long on the plant beyond their peak harvest time they develop what I think is a soapy taste which is not at all appetizing.
The way to tell if a tomatillo is overripe is that the fruit is more of a yellow color than green and the husk has started to turn brown and dry out. When I see a tomatillo like this in my garden I don’t harvest it.
My husband doesn’t think overripe tomatillos taste any different than the perfectly ripe ones, so you might want to come to your own conclusion with a taste test!
If it’s peak summer season and your plant doesn’t have a lot of fruit, you may have stumbled upon a very important issue: are tomatillos self pollinating? (Hint: you need more than one plant!)
How To Store Tomatillos
Now that you know when a tomatillo is ready to pick, let’s talk about what to do with them after harvest.
If you’re not going to use them right away, you can store them in a plastic bag in the fridge for up to a week.
If you want to start cooking, remove the husks because they aren’t edible. I put all of them in my compost.
At this point you’ll discover a little something weird about tomatillos – they’re kind of sticky. I have no idea why this is, but as you start removing the husks with your hands you’ll notice that they start to get sticky. I just periodically rinse my hands under the faucet as I’m working.
I also tend to find small insects and frass (insect poop) under the husks, so I toss the tomatillos into a bowl of water or a colander and rinse them off.
Now you’re ready to cook with your tomatillos!
So, what the heck should you do with them? My favorite way to use tomatillos, and truthfully, the only way I eat them, is to make them into a salsa verde, or green salsa.
Keep reading to find out more.
Freezing Tomatillos
If you have more tomatillos than you can use or you like the idea of saving some of them for winter, you have a few options for freezing tomatillos.
Make Salsa Verde
I freeze about 80% of the tomatillos I grow and eat about 20% fresh. 100% of them are made into a roasted salsa verde. I’ve been using this Homemade Salsa Verde recipe from Cookie and Kate for many years and can attest to the fact that it makes an excellent salsa verde.
You can also make fresh salsa verde (without roasting) and freeze it.
I freeze my salsa verde in quart freezer bags. I stack them up and lay them flat in my chest freezer so they freeze in a slim form to save space. I’ve also used small square containers like these.
Although I freeze other sauces like garlic scape pesto and cilantro sauce in wide mouth glass canning jars, I’m too nervous to freeze the salsa verde in these because it’s more watery. I’ve had glass jars crack in the chest freezer, even when they’re supposed to be freezer safe.
Freeze tomatillos raw
If you don’t have time to make salsa verde or you like to use your tomatillos another way (How?! I’d love to know!) You can freeze them whole. Remove the husks and rinse them off in the sink. It’s best if fruit and vegetables go into the freezer as dry as possible, so sometimes I’ll lay them out on a dish towel on the counter to dry for a bit.
Then, you can load them into gallon freezer bags and put them in your freezer. I’ve never tried to make roasted tomatillo salsa with frozen tomatillos. I’m not sure it would work because the consistency of the tomatillo is much different after it’s frozen. I think you’d have better luck just making fresh salsa with these. Frozen tomatillos will store up to a year.
Freeze tomatillos roasted
If you like the idea of making roasted salsa verde but don’t have time to make the whole recipe, you could roast the tomatillos and then freeze them. Follow the directions for roasting in Cookie and Kate’s recipe, let the tomatillos cool, and then load them into gallon freezer bags.
Lay the bags flat and stacked on top of one another when you put them into the freeze and they’ll freeze in space saving shape.
You can defrost them on a cold winter day and finish making the salsa verde for Taco Tuesday!
Why don’t you can the salsa?
You might be wondering why I don’t can the salsa verde after making it. Honestly, I’m not a huge fan of canning. I think it’s too much work. I practice what I call super easy food preserving. I focus on getting food preserved in the quickest and most useful way possible. I mostly store my harvests for winter eating fresh in the basement storage room, in the fridge, or in my chest freezer.
I even wrote a whole book about it: Super Easy Food Preserving.
Tomatillos might not be as versatile as tomatoes, but I love to grow a few plants in my garden each season to supply us with enough fruit to make salsa verde throughout the summer and to freeze several bags for the winter.
Now that you’ve learned when a tomatillo is ready to pick, you’re ready to get out there and harvest and hopefully make some salsa verde for this week’s taco night!
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