This morning after a breakfast of our own acorn squash muffins I made myself a good stiff bloody mary out of my own A-11 and prepared to off the tomatoes. A-11 is what we’ve dubbed the vegetable juice I made from 11 of our veggies a few weeks back during the first of many canning frenzies. I canned it for bloody marys all winter but it seemed like winter this weekend so out it came.
Of course it rained all day so I have no pictures of the carnage. Yesterday I picked a huge bowl, probably 4 gallons worth of the largest green tomatoes but as I took 12 stupice and saucey plants out today I realized just how much fruit was left on them. It was staggering. Those tomatoes gave and gave and were getting ready to give me a whole new bumper crop bless their little blighted hearts. Unfortunately none of them had so much as a blush of red so I have no hope that they will ever even ripen.
Tomorrow I need to finish the job by cutting back any of the blighted limbs and leaves on the remaining tomato plants, Cherokee purple, green zebra, black plum, sweet 100 and yellow pear. The tomatillo has clear signs of yellow spots on the leaves but no lesions. It’s actually looked that way for the better part of a month now and not gotten worse so I’m not sure if I can leave it in and keep an eye on it or not. The fruits are just starting to grow inside their little lantern like husks.
I also made a few loaves of bread today that were fresh out of the oven when there was a knock on the door. At first I didn’t hear it over the whining of the grain grinder since I was grinding flour for pizza dough.
Yesterday as I harvested the acorn squash a woman I had never seen before was walking by and we started chatting about the garden. As she was leaving she asked for an acorn squash and then mentioned that her daughter had a plum tree. Well of course I’d love some plums I told her.
Today her daughter showed up with two bursting grocery bags of them. Fabulous Italian plums just perfect for anything you can dream of and people, I can dream. So now I have 60 pounds of gala apples sitting in my garage waiting to be sauced, frozen and dried and another 40 pounds of plums to trip over until I find the time to process them. To make matters worse I sent her home with my fresh baked bread so now I need to make more bread tomorrow.
Did I mention the 3 boxes of tomatoes in my living room ripening or ripened indoors before the rat got them? Or the 4 gallons of tomatoes on the kitchen counter waiting to be made into ketsup and tomato soup to can?
My house is a little crazy right now. I also decided late last week now would be the perfect time to start experimenting with making my own chicken food. Which means I have large bags of lentils, split peas, grains, sunflower seeds and other manner of chicken-enticing things in my dining room.
And my dad phoned today to say they would be coming up in a week or so to visit. It’s probably a good thing he doesn’t read my blog! Guess it’s time to get jamming.
So, any ideas what to do with that many smallish green tomatoes, not quite big enough to fry. I was going to make some green tomato chutney but I’d love any other ideas. Or plum ideas. Or apple ideas. Or making time out of nothing ideas…
Organized chaos! How lovely that you and your neighbor are sharing. Adds greater diversity to everyone’s table.
Have you ever made green tomato dills? I haven’t but I have seen the recipe. It calls for small green tomatoes.
Nice exchange with a neighbor!
I know, if I’d have known she had such a big tree I wouldn’t have just planted two plum trees! Maybe I’ll take one out and plant a pear tree instead.
Marg, I’ve never heard of those. Do you remember where you saw the recipe? My sour patch guy loves dill pickled anything. He just ate a whole jar of pickled beans yesterday so that would probably be right up his alley.
I have the recipe in my Mennonite cookbook.
The method is probably the same as any other dill pickle recipe. Here are the proportions:
2 1/2 lbs small green tomatoes
3 cups vinegar
7 cups water
1/2 cup salt
Dill
Select firm tomatoes, wash and drain thoroughly. Boil vinegar, water and salt for 15 min. Cool to lukewarm and pour over tomatoes packed into hot sterilized jars with a sprig of dill at the bottom and top. Seal at once. Yield: 5-6 pints.
It doesn’t say to process in a hot water bath but you might want to do that?
Oiy! The blight! I have it bad. Out of 30 tomato plants I have had to yank 10 and what’s left is in sorry shape. I had grand plans of tomato’s canned into all sorts of gardeny goodness but now…who knows.
May yours rest in peace — alongside mine. What a sad year it’s been for tomato lovers. I’ll tell you what though, I’ve got a couple of plants that have fended off the blight, and I will be saving the seeds for years beyond. Enough is enough!
Hi Marg,
I’ve been fascinated this year with a book on preserving food traditionally and they didn’t water bath process anything so I’m not surprised. I’ll try that one hopefully this weekend – thanks for posting back!
Hi Katie,
I’m glad to see your fingers are working finally!
I’m so sorry for you too – luckily this was my first year with the garden so I think I didn’t get it as bad as everyone else but I sure won’t be growing tomatoes for a few years now. I’ll just have to buck up and buy them from the farmer until the soil clears out.
June, that is a great plan! I wanted to save seeds but I’m not sure if that is a good idea since the fruits I set aside may have blight pathogens? I let the seeds ferment for a few days before drying since I heard that kills them off. Any thoughts?
Last year I canned up a bunch of what I called “green enchilada sauce” made with green tomatoes instead of tomatillos. It was great for enchiladas over the winter (obviously) but also really useful for quick chile verde (just add chicken, pork, or veggies if you like). No real recipe, but I combined green tomatoes, jalepenos, onions, garlic and cumin with enough lime juice to acidify for water batch canning. Boil until soft and puree!
I second the pickles idea as well. I also canned several quarts of smaller green tomatoes whole in salted water. They have been a nice addition to soups and stews over the past year.
And last but not least, make green tomato pie – my recipe is here http://www.eighthacrebounty.com/2008/10/09/saving-the-summer-and-a-green-tomato-recipe/
Enjoy!
Hi Maya, that green enchilada sauce sounds great – were you just guessing by taste on the acidity level? My tomatoes are acidic enough when ripe that I can w/o adding citric juice but I’ve never done green tomatoes and don’t know how that changes things. Any idea?
I wish they were big enough to make the green tomato pie because that sounds great too!
Green Tomatoes are more acidic than ripened tomatoes, so really you likely don’t need the lime juice, but it does add another dimension to the flavor. I’ve made green tomato pie with all sizes, I don’t see why you couldn’t!
Maya, I made this last night – outstanding! My husband loved it. I canned the first gallon with only a few jalapenos for use as enchilada sauce like you suggested then added another 6 jalapenos with seeds to the last quart as hot sauce. It reminds us of Mrs. Renfro’s which we used to love to eat mixed with sour cream. Oh the days…Thanks for the idea! Next year when we hopefully have yuzus from the tree we will have something like lime juice to add to it.
If only I could find a reasonably priced avocado tree to move in with us.
I’m hoping for more large green tomatoes for pie in the next few weeks. I can’t wait to get the tomato plants out and get that bed cover cropped…
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