It’s quiet in the garden,
and yet I can’t explain.
All of my tomatoes seem
to stay a shade of green.
Some are jade with yellow stripes
and some with darker hues.
Some are trying hard to change
while others just refuse.
On the vine they linger,
a feast for all the bugs.
I gnash my teeth in anger
and watch the slimy slugs.
As one last hopeless effort,
I check back to the day
I planted these tomatoes.
What do the packets say?
When I looked at the pictures,
chagrined, I shook my head.
All were green and yellow striped,
not one of them was red!
a pinch of homestead 
Tee hee!
You know how there might be a few green tomatoes at the end of the season that do not ripen, but that make nice pickles? I mean the few left over that are just too green to finish. Well, we do not get many in our climate, but we get perhaps two or three pints of pickled green tomatoes. I really dig them. Anyway, my neighbor thought that the recipe was for green tomatoes, as in tomatoes that are green when ripe, like ‘Green Zebra’. ‘Green Zebra’ is excellent fresh of course, but what is the point of pickling a perfectly good ‘ripe’ tomato?
I LOVE pickled tomatoes! My dad used to make them…so good! We planted Green Zebra so I’m happy to hear that they are delicious!