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There is simply nothing sweeter for a gardener than to pluck a ripe tomato off the vine and sink one's teeth into it.

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Tomatoes can be bountiful right into the fall months.

It tastes of divine freshness, of the fruits of one's labour, of a harvest well and truly rewarding all the efforts of summer.

There are some wonderful heirloom tomatoes available for planting in our part of New Brunswick, so you can recreate the flavours you remember from your grandparent's garden as well.

Generally, tomatoes have to be started from seed. Just put the seeds in a pot or flat in a sunny window in your kitchen about 10 weeks before your last frost date.

Leave the young plants outside, keeping them well-watered and in partial shade for a week or so prior to transplanting them into your garden. That hardening off period allows them to adjust to life in the great outdoors.

Once in your garden, give tomatoes plenty of sun and water and they will reward you like no other plant.

Unfortunately, tomatoes have a habit of all arriving at once and often too late in the season to allow the luxury of letting them ripen before being harvested.

Early threats of frost send serious gardeners scurrying out sometimes in the dusk to harvest the best remaining tomatoes, and then store them, green and hard, in paper bags to ripen.

It is a fact of life that gardeners tend to plant more tomato plants for a harvest much larger than they can personally use. And once families and friends have had their welcome gifts from the garden, there remains in the cold, grey days of November, the challenge of what to do with too many green tomatoes.

Fortunately, there are few things on this planet more versatile than the green tomato. It can be fried southern style, or chopped and put into chutneys and salsa.

Here's a recipe for the Green Tomato Salsa that will use up what is left of this year's crop.

Green Salsa

Ingredients:
5 cups chopped green tomatoes (1.25 l)
1 1/2 cups seeded, chopped long green chilies (375 ml)
1/2 cup seeded finely chopped jalapeños (125 ml)
4 cups chopped onions (1 l)
1 cup bottled lemon juice (250 ml)
6 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tbsp ground cumin (15 ml)
3 tbsp oregano leaves (45 ml)
1 tbsp salt (15 ml)
1 tsp black pepper (5 ml)

Method:
Combine all ingredients in a large saucepan and stir frequently over high heat until mixture begins to boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Ladle hot salsa into pint jars, leaving 1/2-inch headspace. Adjust lids and process in a boiling water canner 15 minutes at 0-1,000 feet altitude; 20 minutes at 1,001-6,000 feet; 25 minutes above 6,000 feet.

If that doesn't use up your crop, you can also eat the green tomatoes fried, a popular dish from the southern United States.

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* Seminar set - On Saturday, Nov. 15, two gardening sessions presented by the Westmorland Horticultural Society will be offered at the Lewisville Middle School, 45 McAuley St. From 10 a.m. to 12 noon, you can learn about Houseplants and Tropicals and from 2 to 4 p.m., learn about Christmas Plants. Guest speaker for both sessions will be Andrew Lewis of Green Village Home & Garden.