My friend Kerry Michaels, who blogs about container gardening at About.com and who even plants her reuseable grocery bags, has a terrific recipe for fried green tomatoes.

Kerry lost most of last year's tomato crop to Late Blight (which arrived early), so she picked her tomatoes before the plants succombed and most were still green. Hense, the recipe.

This year, without the same excuse, she's picking some of her tomatoes before they ripen so she can revisit her recipe.

(Keep reading for other fried green tomato ideas.)

Photo credit: Baltimore Sun/Karl Merton Ferron