what to do with the last green tommy toes
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| Issue #41 • September/October, 1996 |
That gentle nip in the autumn air feels pleasant to your cheeks, but it also means that 1 more love apple season is near to come to an end. Although the Onetime Farmer's Almanac lists frost dates for most parts of the United states, it is quite candid and adds, "The possibility of frost occurring afterwards the spring dates and earlier the fall dates is 50 pct." Then at our house, when that time rolls effectually, we go on an ear to the radio for weather forecasts and an eye on the sky for deject weather. We want to protect those warm-weather-loving love apple vines as long as possible. Nosotros hate to give up those delicious vine-ripened tomatoes.
Lycopersicon esculentum hay stacks
When we are convinced a light frost is imminent, we get into activeness. When we first transplant our tomatoes into the garden in the jump, we either stake them or set a muzzle over the plants. The method we use to lengthen the life of our vines in the fall involves the support of this pale or cage. Get-go nosotros pick all the small tomatoes that have no chance of ripening. So we examine all the larger tomatoes and go out only those showing signs of having at least some blush of colour. Next, we push button onetime hay or harbinger upwardly nether and around and over each love apple plant, keeping the hay wrap loose and from 3 to 4 inches thick. Then we securely tie the wrap with twine effectually the tomato found and its pale or cage. The pale or cage makes a good support for the "tomato hay stack." The tomato vines stay snug and warm under their cover, and the tomatoes will ripen without any more calorie-free. Later, when nosotros pick the ripened tomatoes, we carefully part the hay without pulling information technology loose, and pat it back into place until all the tomatoes are gone. Tomatoes protected in this manner ripen slowly until a very deep freeze hits, and best of all, they nonetheless have that wonderful vine-ripened taste.
The green ones
Now, most those other green tomatoes we picked before wrapping the vines. Once again, we sort the tomatoes, and we select the nicest large, full-grown ones to store.
We brand certain the tomatoes are dry, so wrap them individually in newspaper. Some people don't like to use newsprint on food, even though near newspaper ink is now made from soy bean oil. If y'all don't like to use newsprint, inexpensive white paper napkins work just as well.
We store the wrapped tomatoes in shallow boxes or trays—no more than than two deep—and ready the trays in a place that does not freeze or get above about 65° F. Nearly green tomatoes will ripen in about four to six weeks if held at 55° to 65° with moderate humidity. To hasten ripening, I place a few unwrapped apples here and there among the tomatoes. And I check them periodically, then as to utilise the ripe tomatoes before they spoil.
I year, after a bumper crop of tomatoes, nosotros sliced the terminal of our fresh, scarlet tomatoes for Christmas dinner. Admittedly, tomatoes ripened this way aren't as tasty equally vine-ripened tomatoes, but they sure are a lot ameliorate than those blobs they telephone call tomatoes and sell in the grocery store in the winter time.
Light-green tomato relish
Considering all produce, including greenish tomatoes, should be freshly picked (meaning non more than 24 hours old) before starting the pickling or canning process, I immediately start processing the rest of our green tomatoes. 1 fashion to utilize a big amount of greenish tomatoes is past making those good light-green tomato plant relishes. Most green tomato relish recipes tell you to chop the vegetables and allow them set up overnight in a table salt solution. I can quickly chop the vegetables for savour and fix them aside while I ready more green tomatoes for other recipes. Hither are our favorite green tomato relish recipes.
| 1 quart chopped cabbage 1 quart chopped dark-green tomatoes 2 sweetness ruby peppers, chopped 2 sweet dark-green peppers, chopped ii large onions, chopped | ¼ cup common salt one½ cups vinegar, five% acidity 1½ cups water 2 cups firmly packed brown sugar 1 teaspoon each dry mustard, turmeric, celery seed |
| Mix chopped vegetables with salt and let stand overnight. Next forenoon, line a colander with cheesecloth, pour vegetable mixture into colander, let bleed, and so bring edges of cheesecloth up over mixture and squeeze until all liquid possible is removed. Boil vinegar, water, carbohydrate, and spices five minutes. Add together vegetable mixture. Bring to a eddy. Cascade into sterilized jars to within a half inch of top. Put on cap. Process in boiling water bath five minutes. Yield: 6 pints. Variation of Piccalilli: Utilise two quarts chopped green tomatoes instead of one quart cabbage and one quart dark-green tomatoes. Likewise, two dark-green sweet peppers can be substituted for the scarlet peppers, but the savor won't be as pretty. | |
| 12 large green tomatoes 4 large sweet green peppers iv large sweet cerise peppers 6 cucumbers (half-dozen inches long) 2 big onions six Tablespoons common salt two cups chopped cabbage 2 modest hot peppers | ii ½ cups carbohydrate 3 cups vinegar, 5% acidity ½ teaspoon ground mace (or nutmeg) 1 teaspoon cinnamon ii teaspoons ground ginger root 1 teaspoon turmeric 3 Tablespoons mustard seed 3 bay leaves |
| Remove seeds from peppers. Put peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, and onions through food chopper, using coarse blade. Stir table salt into vegetables. Let set overnight. Next morn, line a colander with cheesecloth, pour vegetable mixture into colander, let bleed, then bring sides of cheesecloth upward over mixture and clasp until all liquid possible is removed. Chop cabbage very fine. Combine all the vegetables. Add together saccharide, vinegar, and spices. Mix well and oestrus to boiling. Boil three minutes. Pack into sterilized jars to within a half inch of superlative. Put on cap. Process in boiling h2o bath five minutes. Yield: eight pints. | |
| i peck (12 ½ pounds) green tomatoes 8 large onions 10 green bell peppers 3 Tablespoons pickling salt half-dozen hot peppers, seeded and chopped i quart vinegar, 5% acidity | 1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon i Tablespoon ground allspice ¼ teaspoon ground cloves iii Tablespoons dry mustard four bay leaves i ¾ cups sugar ½ cup horseradish (optional) |
| Remove seeds from peppers and chop with the tomatoes and onions. Stir in common salt and let stand overnight. Side by side morning, line a colander with cheesecloth, pour mixture into colander, and let drain. Bring edges of cloth upwards over mixture and squeeze to remove all liquid possible. Put in a big kettle. Tie the spices in a cheesecloth bag and add to the mixture along with the vinegar and sugar. Allow to eddy slowly until tender, near xv minutes. Add horseradish, return to boil. Remove spice bag. Pack into sterilized jars within a one-half inch of acme. Put on cap. Process in boiling water bathroom five minutes. Yield: 10 or 11 pints. | |
Dark-green love apple pickles
Next, I start making a few jars of green tomato pickles. Here are some skillful dark-green tomato plant pickle recipes.
| 4 quarts thinly sliced green tomatoes | one Tablespoon each black pepper mustard seed celery seed cloves allspice cinnamon |
| Sprinkle ½ cup salt over vegetables, permit set overnight. Next morning, drain well but practice not clasp dry. In a large kettle, mix vinegar, ¾ cup salt, and spices. Bring to boil. Add vegetables. Boil xx minutes, pack into sterilized jars. Put on cap. Procedure in humid water bathroom v minutes. Yields approximately eight pints. | |
| Dark-green tomato kosher dill pickles | |
| Small, firm green tomatoes Celery stalks Sweetness light-green peppers, cut into fourths Garlic | 1 quart vinegar, 5% acidity ii quarts water 1 cup pickling common salt Dill |
| Pack tomatoes into sterilized quart jars. To each jar add one stalk celery, one green pepper, and a bud of garlic. Make a brine of the vinegar, water, and salt. Boil with the dill for five minutes. Cascade hot brine over vegetables to within a half inch of top of the jar. Put on cap. Process in boiling water bath fifteen minutes. This amount of liquid fills six quarts. These pickles will be ready for use in iv to six weeks. | |
| Green tomato sweetness pickles | |
| ane gallon green tomatoes (16 cups sliced) ¼ cup pickling salt ½ Tablespoon powdered alum three cups vinegar, v% acidity 1 cup water | 4 cups sugar 1 Tablespoon mixed pickling spices ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon 1 Tablespoon celery seed ½ teaspoon ground allspice 1 Tablespoon mustard seed |
| Sprinkle salt over sliced tomatoes and allow to stand overnight. Next forenoon bleed well, merely do non clasp dry. Mix alum with ii quarts humid h2o and pour over tomatoes. Let stand 20 minutes. Drain and cover with cold water, then drain well, rinsing alum away. Necktie spices in a cheesecloth bag. Combine spices with vinegar and ane cup of water. Add sugar and bring to a boil. Pour solution over tomatoes, let stand overnight. On the third morn bring the pickles and the solution to a boil. Remove spice purse. Pack into sterilized jars to inside a one-half inch of pinnacle. Put on cap. Process in boiling water bath five minutes. Yield: eight pints. | |
| No season is consummate without a piffling bit of green tomato mincemeat for pies. | |
| three quarts coarsely ground dark-green tomatoes iii quarts peeled, cored, coarsely ground apples one cup basis suet 1 pound seedless raisins 2 Tablespoons each grated orangish and lemon rind 5 cups well-packed nighttime chocolate-brown or raw sugar | ¾ cup vinegar ½ cup fresh lemon juice ½ cup water 1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon ¼ teaspoon ground cloves ¼ teaspoon basis allspice two teaspoons salt |
| Combine all ingredients in large kettle, bring to boiling, stirring oftentimes. Reduce heat and simmer until dark and thick, almost 2 and a half hours, stirring occasionally. Use a pad under kettle to assistance prevent scorching. Pour boiling hot into pint jars to within a one-half inch of top. Process in a boiling h2o bathroom 25 minutes. Makes eight pints, enough for 8 viii-inch pies. Force per unit area processing is not needed for this recipe considering of the very long cooking time. | |
| Light-green lycopersicon esculentum mincemeat #ii | |
| 6 pounds green tomatoes 6 pounds apples, cored and peeled 6 pounds raisins 1 pound suet 1 ½ Tablespoons salt | vi teaspoons ground cinnamon 3 teaspoons basis cloves 3 teaspoons basis nutmeg one ½ cups lemon juice iii pounds brown sugar |
| Grind apples, tomatoes, and suet. Put into large kettle with other ingredients. Cook until night and thick, about two and a half hours, stirring occasionally. Watch closely to forbid scorching. Pour into sterilized jars to inside a half inch of top. Put on cap. Process in hot h2o bath 25 minutes. Yields seven quarts. | |
Fried dark-green tomatoes
Fried green tomatoes are ambrosia. Yes, they are fried in fat. Yes, they have a lot of calories. Forget all that. Upon occasion, some things are to be enjoyed without thinking of fat and calories. This is one of those occasions.
| Slice large dark-green tomatoes about i/4-inch thick. Permit stand up in common salt water (i Tablespoon salt to ane quart water) four hours to overnight. Drain well. Pat dry. Dip each slice in flour. Fry in hot fat, turning one time until golden chocolate-brown. Serve hot. For extra flavor, add two Tablespoons bacon drippings to fat for frying. This is a proficient side dish or a adept meat substitute with eggs for breakfast. Variation:Dip each slice of tomato in beaten egg, then into cornmeal. Fry in hot lard.Variation:Oven fry. Coat lesser of baking dish with cooking oil. Heat in oven. Layer coated lycopersicon esculentum slices one thickness in dish. Broil 350° F. until golden brown and soft, about 25 minutes. |
The alkali-dill jar
This is by far our favorite. I like this recipe because I don't have to can these pickles unless I want to. Ordinarily after a couple of weeks, at that place is nothing left to can, anyway, because my family eats them upwardly and so fast. This recipe is adaptated from the one given by the late Euell Gibbons, a nationally-known author and expert on wild foods. This is an imprecise recipe, and no two alkali-dill jars are alike. You apply what yous have on hand or tin can provender. The only absolutely necessary things are onions, garlic, and dill, preferably fresh, but dried or frozen is all correct.
| Wash well and scald a gallon-size glass jar with a wide tiptop. Pack a layer of dill in the lesser, add together several cloves of garlic, and so kickoff layering vegetables into the jar, packing dill in between each layer. I put in several layers of small-scale light-green tomatoes, about ping-pong ball size. Dark-green cerise tomatoes are peculiarly good. Use a layer of onions somewhere in the jar. If yous don't take small boiling onions, slice larger onions. Peeled, sliced Jerusalem artichokes are good. Tender green or wax beans are good. (They are the only vegetables that must be cooked before calculation to the jar. They have to exist parboiled for nigh five minutes.) Cauliflower broken into small florets is keen. Capers and a few red Tabasco peppers add a scrap of dash. The white function of leeks and sweetness peppers, either green or red, seeded and cut into strips, add interest. But many times, I take used only the green tomatoes flavored with the dill, onions, and garlic.Brand a brine of ¾ of a loving cup of pickling salt to 10 cups of boiled and cooled water. Add together ¼ cup cider vinegar of v% acidity. Cascade over vegetables in jar, insert a knife blade to remove air bubbles, then encompass the tiptop of the vegetables with more dill. Weigh down the superlative of the vegetables with something like a saucer weighted with a jar of h2o to keep everything below the brine, and let the jar cure at room temperature. Let the jar set near two weeks. Stand back when you open the jar: a stampeding family unit can be dangerous. If y'all want to preserve these pickles, pack into hot, sterilized jars along with more dill. Strain the brine, bring to a boil, and cascade over pickles. If you need more alkali, employ ½ loving cup pickling salt, four cups of 5% vinegar, and ane gallon of water, and bring to a boil. Seal. Procedure in boiling water bath 15 minutes, starting to count the time when the hot jars are placed in the actively boiling water. |
Finally, after we've stored and pickled and canned all the green tomatoes we can maybe use—and stand up to look at—we are quite happy to dump the residuum into the compost pile. We've found that the tomatoes compost all-time if nosotros layer them in the compost pile non more than one lycopersicon esculentum deep and separate each layer with some leaves, harbinger, and animal manure. Otherwise, they but sit and sog.
Ripe or green, tomatoes can be used in more means than almost whatever other vegetable, which is one reason they accept become the home gardener'southward favorite crop.
Making pickles: containers, salt, and vinegar
When making relishes and pickles or other acidic foods, use only glass, crockware, stainless steel, or graniteware containers. Acid foods react with aluminum ware, which should non be used to soak or cook those foods in.
Use only canning and pickling salt. Exercise not apply tabular array salt, either the plain or iodized type. Table salt contains fillers to keep it from caking, and those fillers react with pickling acids and spices, making the pickles dark, sense of taste off-flavor, and sometimes spoil. Canning and pickling table salt can be purchased at most grocery stores and is usually located beside the canning supplies or with the table salt and spices. It can be purchased in ii or five pound bags and will be conspicuously marked.
Vinegar used in pickling should be of five% to 6% acidity. The force of vinegar is usually shown on the label. If the vinegar is likewise weak, the pickles will spoil or become soft.
Source: https://www.backwoodshome.com/here-are-some-tasty-ways-to-use-those-end-of-season-green-tomatoes/
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