Green Tomatoes

Well the cold wet overcast weather put the final nail in the coffin for my tomatoes. Last couple of years they would have been fine. I picked them all off the plants to try and salvage something.

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I figure that is about 10 pounds of varying sizes with a few ripening ones. What to do with all of this? Make a relish? Pickle them? Seems a shame to go to waste.

slice bread par-fry and freeze, you can have fried green tomotoes all winter long! ugh. I don’t like fried green tomatoes. relish sounds like an idea.

Place them in single layers in a cardboard box, with newspaper in between the layers. Keep them cool like in the garage this time of the year and they will slowly ripen.

Chow-chow baby!

I used to have to help my Grandmother make that stuff in washtubs. I hated it as a kid, but love it now.

Amen

Got a good chow chow recipe?

This is my grandmother’s recipe…

Clean either 24 pint-size or 12 quart-size canning jars. Chop enough green tomatoes to fill half the jars. Chop enough green peppers to fill a quarter of the jars. Chop enough onion to fill a quarter of the jars. Thoroughly mix the veggies and distribute evenly into jars.

In a large pot, dissolve 1 package of Mrs Wages Pickling Spices for Vegetables (crush the peppercorns) and 12 cups of granulated sugar into 8 cups of vinegar and 4 cups of water. Optionally add a Tbsp or two of celery seed. Distribute liquid mixture evenly over veggies in jars.

Process in pressure cooker at 15 psi for 15 minutes.

Oh, and here’s this years (double) batch…

What’s “chow chow”?

And you’re lucky, everything here froze off a long time ago.  Wanna see a picture of my snow?

Sure I’ll look at some snow… :smiley:

Chow-chow is a type of relish common in but not limited to the Southern states. Can be spicy or mild.

Thanks joe. I might not be able to find that brand of spices here but your technique tells me a lot about how to go about it.

Mild chow-chow?  Wow, that never even occured to me.

My vote is for pickled tomatoes.  But then again, I LOVE pickled okra too.

Can’t go wrong with FGTs either.

I believe chow chow will be made. Not the full amount but it it will indeed be hot. :slight_smile: I want to pickle some too. I was told to cook for 15 minutes or so and then freeze in ziplocks or can in jars. That doesn’t enthuse me. Maybe some sort of green tomato green chile salsa.

Those guys kinda look like smooth-skinned mirlitons.

Good thing you picked them before the excess rain caused them to split open.

Yes they are kinda pear shaped. Was expecting something like what I see at the store. :-\ Their sacrifice will not be in vain.

I like this idea - I’d probably roast them in the oven and make it like a tomatillo salsa.  I haven’t tried it though, so I’d do a small batch first.

You should be fine.  Nanny’s actual recipe just called for “pickling spices”.  The Mrs Wages is just what’s easy to find at our local Southern States Co-op.

If you don’t have enough for a full batch use finely chopped cabbage as a filler. Squash, peppers (hot and/or bell), corn, califlower or carrots works good too. I make some chow chow with nothing but cabbage, onions and peppers and some with just about everything thrown in. There is no set standard.

The Mrs Wages Hokerer was speaking of makes a good product. I use the dill pickle packages. It makes better than I can mix up myself.

It is in our stores here too but you can buy online.

Chowchow sounds really good but this is what I do with them…my grandmother’s recipe.

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Love pickled green tomatoes.

Mmmm…Fresh dill weed.