Tomatoes

[Glacier]

Growing tomatoes is a real treat for me because it's one of those things we could not grow when I was a kid - unless you had one of those greenhouses, and I'm not talking a hothouse (people often mistakenly call a hothouse a greenhouse). A greenhouse is heated, whereas a hothouse is not. Two people I know in the Chilcotin have grown tomatoes, but they had to hook up a wood furnace to the thing almost every night to keep them from freezing.

Back to the mighty tomato...

What are your favourite kinds, what on earth do I do with the 6854 grams of green tomatoes??

My all time favourite variety is the Sungold cherry tomato. Even though it's a cherry tomato, I got more pounds off this one plant than I did the beef stake. Not only is it a prolific producer, it is also the tastiest tomato (in my opinion of course).

Another variety I like is the Brandywine, but it doesn't produce very much. I have more success buying them at the farmer's market, but boy are they good.

My other favourite variety is the Green Zebra. It's a small-ish tomato that turns a lighter shade of green when it's ripe. Nice flavor, but not an overly prolific producer.

For some reason I always end up growing Yellow Pear cherry tomatoes too. It's a good producer, but I find it to be a little too bland for my liking (unless picked a little on the green side).

I tried a new variety this year called the Indigo Rose. I've read recently that purple tomatoes help fight cancer, but this little guy has a couple of downsides.

1) it takes FOREVER to ripen. I didn't get my first ripe tomato recently.
2) You have to take the time to flip each tomato over in order to check if it's ripe because you can't tell by looking (the Indigo Roses shown below are not ripe, which can only be confirmed by looking at the bottom and noticing the green).
3) The flavour is bland.
4) The go bad really fast once picked.

The big advantage is that the thing produces like once it finally starts ripening. Tonight, I picked almost 6 lb of tomatoes off my one plant! All green.

Tomatoes picked tonight:

3.1 lb of Beefstake
1.4 lb of Pear
3.3 lb of Sungold
1.5 lb of Green Zebra
5.8 lb of Indigo Rose
a pathetically small amount of Brandywine

Indigo Rose that are not ripe...

Green Zebra...

[oneh2obabe]

What are your favourite kinds, what on earth do I do with the 6854 grams of green tomatoes??

Green Tomato Relish
5 cups coarsely chopped green tomatoes (about 5 tomatoes)
5 cups coarsely chopped cabbage (about 1-1/2 lbs. cabbage)
1-1/2 cups finely chopped yellow onion or sweet onion
2 cups coarsely chopped bell pepper, at least 1 red for color (about 4 peppers)
1/3 cup kosher salt or pickling salt
2-1/2 cups cider vinegar
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 tbsp. yellow mustard seeds
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 tsp. celery seed
1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes, or to taste, optional

Combine the chopped vegetables in a large nonreactive kettle or bowl. Add the salt and stir to combine thoroughly. Cover and let stand for 4 hours or refrigerate overnight.

Prepare the canner and jars. Add water to a canner with rack and heat to a boil; reduce heat and keep at a simmer. The water should be high enough to be at least 1" above the filled jars. Wash jars thoroughly and heat water in a small saucepan; put the lids in the saucepan and bring almost to the boil; lower heat to very low to keep the lids hot.
Drain the vegetables and rinse thoroughly.

In a large nonreactive kettle, bring the vinegar, brown sugar, and seeds and spices to a boil. Reduce heat to medium low and continue simmering for 5 minutes. Add the drained vegetables and bring back to a boil. Reduce heat to medium low and simmer for 10 minutes. With a slotted spoon, pack the vegetables into prepared jars. Cover vegetables with the pickling liquid, leaving about 1/4" headspace. With a clean dampened cloth, wipe the rims of the jars. Place the flat lids on the jars then close caps with screw-on rings tightly, but do not over-tighten. Arrange the filled jars in the canner and add more water, as needed, to be at least 1" above the jars. Bring to a full boil. Cover and continue boiling for 10 minutes. Remove the relish to a rack to cool completely.

Nova Scotia Chow Chow
16 cups finely sliced green tomatoes
8 cups sliced onions

Sprinkle well with pickling salt, and let sit overnight. In the morning drain and put in a large pot, add:

3 cups vinegar
6 cups sugar
1/2 cup pickling spices (in a bag).

Cook, stirring often, until soft and thickened somewhat. Seal in hot sterile jars. Makes about 6 pints.

Green Tomato Pie
5 green tomatoes, chopped
1-1/2 cups white sugar
2 tbsp. cider vinegar
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 recipe pastry for a 9" double crust pie

Preheat oven to 350°. Place diced green tomatoes and vinegar in a large bowl. In a medium bowl, mix together sugar, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, salt and flour. Sprinkle over tomatoes and toss to coat evenly. Pour into pie crust and cover with criss-cross lattice crust. Bake for 30-35 minutes until bubbly and crust is brown.

Fried Green Tomatoes
4-6 green tomatoes
salt and pepper
cornmeal
bacon grease or vegetable oil

Slice the tomatoes into 1/4" - 1/2" slices. Salt and pepper to taste. Dip in meal and fry in hot grease or oil about 3 minutes or until golden on bottom. Gently turn and fry the other side. Serve as a side dish.

Green Tomato Pickles
4 qts. sliced green tomatoes, loosely packed
1 qt. sliced onion, loosely packed
1 cup pickling salt, divided
2 lbs. light brown sugar
6 cups vinegar (5% acidity)
2 small red chile peppers
1/3 cup mustard seeds
1/4 cup celery seeds
1 tsp. ground black pepper
1 tbsp. whole allspice
2 tsp. whole cloves

Place sliced tomatoes and sliced onion in separate bowls; sprinkle 3/4 cup salt over tomatoes and 1/4 cup salt over onion; stir both mixtures. Cover both bowls and let stand at room temperature for 4-6 hours. Place tomatoes in a cheesecloth bag, and squeeze gently to remove excess juice. Repeat this procedure for onion. Discard the salt liquid. Combine tomatoes, onion, sugar, vinegar, chile peppers, mustard seeds, celery seeds, and pepper in a large kettle. Tie allspice and cloves in a small cheesecloth bag; add to tomato onion mixture. Bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer, uncovered, over low heat 20 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Pack tomato mixture and liquid into hot sterilized 1-quart jars (with 1 piece of the chile pepper in each jar - cut if necessary), leaving 1/2" headspace; wipe jar rims. Cover at once with metal lids, and screw on ring bands. Process in a boiling water bath 10 minutes. Store in a cool dark place. Store opened pickles in refrigerator. Makes 4 1-pint jars or 2 1-quart jars.

Green Tomato Cake
2-1/4 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil or melted shortening
3 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
3 cups flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1 cup pecans or walnuts
1 cup raisins
2-1/2 cups diced green tomatoes
coconut (optional)

Preheat oven to 350°F. In mixing bowl, beat sugar, vegetable oil or shortening, eggs and vanilla until smooth and creamy. Sift together the flour, salt, baking powder, cinnamon and nutmeg; slowly beat into egg mixture. Blend well. Stir in pecans, raisins and tomatoes. Pour into greased 9" x 13" pan. Top with coconut if desired. Bake for 1 hour, or until toothpick inserted in centre comes out clean.

[coffeeFreak]

I don't have my cookbooks available to me but found this. Although it isn't the same one I've used in the past (mine didn't ask for suet), it seems to contain the same ingredients. It was great, especially for loafs and muffins.

Green Tomatoe Mincemeat
Ingredients

8 quarts green tomatoes, minced
8 quarts minced, cored apples
1/2 pound beef suet
6 pounds brown sugar
1 cup distilled white vinegar
2 tablespoons salt
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons ground cloves
2 tablespoons ground allspice
2 pounds raisins
32 ounces candied mixed citrus peel (optional)
7 large orange, peeled, sectioned, and cut into bite-size
2 lemons, finely chopped
Directions

In a very large stock pot, combine green tomatoes, apples, suet (or oil), brown sugar, vinegar, chopped oranges, chopped lemons, raisins, and candied peel. Season with salt, cinnamon, cloves and allspice. Cover, and cook over low heat for 3 hours.
Sterilize 30 (1 pint) canning jars and lids according to manufacturer's instructions.

Ladle filling into the sterilized jars, leaving 1/2 inch head space. Wipe the jar with a clean, damp cloth. Cover with jars with lids, and screw on jar rings.

Heat water in a hot water canner. Place jars in rack, and slowly lower jars into canner. The water should cover the jars completely, and should be hot but not boiling. Bring water to a boil, and process for 10 minutes.
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/green-tomato-mincemeat/

Came across this one while looking for the mincemeat recipe and thought it looked interesting:

Currant and Green Tomato Chutney:

Ingredients
3 cups currants (or raisins)
4-1/2 cups finely chopped green tomatoes
4-1/2 cups peeled and finely chopped tart apples
2 lemons, seeded, quartered and sliced thin
2 cups minced onions
2 cloves garlic
½ cup honey
1 cup vinegar
1 cup water
2 Tablespoons mustard seed
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 teaspoons ground ginger

Prepare ingredients as above, or put the tomatoes and apples through a meat grinder. Then combine all and simmer until fruit is soft (at least 20 minutes, probably more). Pack into hot, scalded jars, leaving ¼ inch headspace. Seal and process for 5 minutes in a boiling-water bath.

http://awaytogarden.com/applesgreen-tomatoesgooey-mincemeat

[uwantit]

ripen them by placing in a beer flat covered with newspaper and keep in a cold storage until you almost need them,
then bring them in the house to ripen....
If you have too many, ripen them, wash them and throw int he freezer whole. Later, for recipes, take out of freezer, run under hot hot water, put a knife score on them and plop in a cold water bath... peel skin off and throw in soup or stew....

[Lady tehMa]

I have a 20 litre pail of green tomatoes -__-;

I canned 12 quarts of the ripe ones, and have 2 large bowls full or more ripe ones. If only my dehydrator hadn't fried!

Friend has a recipe for pickling green tomatoes, when I get it I'll post it here.l

[normaM]

someone can pickle me some tomatoes, they sound tasty.
Do not care for tomatoes - all that runny pulpy gunk * shudder* Romas are safe.

[Lady tehMa]

You'd like Amish paste tomatoes then - they're great! Twice the size of the romas (and more) this year, and low juice content.

http://store.tomatofest.com/Amish_Paste_p/tf-0015.htm though I read online that the "Opalka" tomato is even better.

[Glacier]

Sweet! I bought a flat of Amish tomatoes yesterday. Was going to just dice and can them, but open to other suggestions.

[normaM]

my suggestion my Dear is that you make me pickled tomatoes
Never heard of Amish tomatoes.
You healthy ppl, can't wrap my head around it
I haven't cooked in so long I am turning the stove into a storage unit
I swear if someone would cook for me once a day, and clean the house once a week they could live in the suite rentfree.
And I am easy to please food wise, just not runny tomatoes
I need a NANNY

[Lady tehMa]

Sweet! I bought a flat of Amish tomatoes yesterday. Was going to just dice and can them, but open to other suggestions.

You've already made salsa, right? You could make stewed tomatoes, or tomato sauce and can them. I like the amish paste because I don't end up with as much liquid when I can. The brandywines and old germans are nice, but very juicy and leave a lot of fluid in the jar after they're processed.

@ Norma - I'd be tempted if I didn't have my 3 to look after (hubby and kids)

[Queen K]

BUMP

I am canning Roma tomatoes tomorrow. Trying for 20 quart jars, half of which will be plain. 10 will include some hot pepper and the rest will include homegrown garlic.

We found really nice ripe Romas at Mike's Produce off of Benvoulin, 70 cents a pound. Why cheaper? No debit machine costs, not trying to be a produce stand which includes everything and he's the staff.

Take cash. Sure glad I did.

He has wonderful other fruits too, cantaloupe! Yummmy.

Remember Cantaloupe Milkshakes from the Kelowna Fruit stand on the highway? I am going to try that.

[Queen K]

[quote="Glacier"]
I tried a new variety this year called the Indigo Rose. I've read recently that purple tomatoes help fight cancer, but this little guy has a couple of downsides.

1) it takes FOREVER to ripen. I didn't get my first ripe tomato recently.
2) You have to take the time to flip each tomato over in order to check if it's ripe because you can't tell by looking (the Indigo Roses shown below are not ripe, which can only be confirmed by looking at the bottom and noticing the green).
3) The flavour is bland.
4) The go bad really fast once picked.

I grew this variety this year and they make terrific conversation tomatoes.

"What IS that?"
"Indigo Rose, wanna try one"?
"Sure!"

We got a lot of fruit off of ours. We truly found it to be tasty. And yes, they do take a while to ripen but it's fun seeing the black/blueness with the red growing larger on the bottom as it ripens.

Got lots off the one plant this year.

[Queen K]

Oh our Sweet Millions are delicious roasted.

And the Yellow Pear really gave up quite a few even encased in Sunflowers. I got a bit down this year and decided to let the Sunflowers take over a certain area. They put on quite a show.

[Glacier]

Most of my varieties are still 100%green. Only the cherry tomatoes are ripe. Much cooler summer this year, although it was bang on the average in terms of temperature.

[Lady tehMa]

My tomatoes didn't do so well. The romas I planted were tasty, though. Amish paste and San Marzano.

The black krim did better than my other tomatoes (brandywine, mortgage lifter, marianne's peace)

The cuban gold cherry tomato might actually be sweeter than the sungold!