Then in July we started watching for the first yellow flowers to appear and shortly after that we were rewarded with small green tomatoes. But the plants were growing so fast and so well, they needed some support. So out came the green twine and nails so they could be held up to the wall of the house. The photo on the left is in late July and I realized that these tomato plants were taller than myself. It wasn't much longer when they outgrew "him!" And HIM is 6'2 1/2" tall. When they hit 7 feet tall, we started crimping them at the top or else we'd never be able to harvest the crop!
First tomatoes:
We've been thoroughly enjoying our crop of tomatoes by eating them like an apple, sliced with a bit of sea salt on them, in sandwiches, with cottage cheese, etc. The bowl is always full, but there were so many green ones still on the vine that I started thinking about my mother's old "Green Tomato Pickle Relish" that the entire family loved. It's good on beef, pork, ham, chicken, sausages, or anything else you can think of.
Last week, we bought some jars and today I pulled out the recipe from the little box that I'd inherited and went to the store to get all the necessary ingredients. And I began:
And TA-DA! A dozen jars of green tomato pickle relish that I think we will test tonight at dinner to make sure they're okay before sharing it with anyone else. Lucky me my children don't like pickles, so all the more for us!
And we STILL have LOTS of tomatoes on the vine to pick and eat, whether we like 'em yellow, white, black, green OR the traditional red.
7 comments:
That's a tremendous crop. We've got three plants in pots this year, two cherry tomatoes and one Roma. I did Early Girl instead of the Roma last year and think I like it better. I'll probably switch back. So far we've been able to keep up with eating ours and giving a few away. The green tomato relish is a good idea. I'll keep that in mind if things get out of hand or we get tired of eating them. - Margy
Hi Leslie, I enjoyed reading about your tomatoes. We had a good crop 4years ago, and I made green tomato chutney-same as pickle, I think.
But the neat 2 summers were so wet here that the tomatoes never ripened, so I didn't bother with them this year..and of course it's been sunny!
Anyway, with my big potato crop, pictured over at mine, maybe I've enough to cope with..can you make potato pickle??Joking!
You have done really well, I have tried to grow tomatoes without success, I really need a greenhouse as we don't get enough long spells of sunshine. They taste so much better when homegrown.
Hi Margy, yes we're REALLY enjoying the "Early Girl" as they're so meaty!
Hi Mimi, I went over and took a look at your potatoes - wish we had enough garden to grow those!
Hi Barbara, yes they do taste so much better home-grown and not so many seeds in them.
Oooh, save some of that relish for me. Yum!
Also, you can make "triple O" sauce with that -- one part mayonnaise, one part ketchup and one part green tomato relish.
Then get some shrimp, toast some sourdough bread, and Bob's your uncle.
Move over, White Spot!
My great-auntie used to make lovely green tomato pickle. that must have been the perfect spot to grow yours.
wow i love the look of that relish...something i would love to make and i love the look of your jars too :-) think i need more pretty ones for my jam :-)
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