What Does One Do With 200 Pounds of Green Tomatoes? Delicious Recipes Included!
- Buckets and Buckets of Green Tomatoes
Not More Green Tomatoes!
It seems that at the end of each growing season, there are a few left over green tomatoes. While we love fried green tomatoes, we don’t want to eat 200 pounds of them.
So, you ask what does one do with so many pounds of green tomatoes. One gets very busy. It took me days, and days to cook them all.
We had an early frost last fall. We were worried about losing the rest of the tomatoes that were still on the vine. These vines were what we call volunteers. They grew up from the rich compost pile behind our green house. Volunteers or not, we didn’t want to lose them. Losing a few isn’t bad, but we had a lot left this time.
Time To Get The Wheel Barrow
With wheel barrow in tow, we went out to the gardens and started picking. We figured we probably had about one wheel barrow full. Wrong!. We filled up two wheel barrows, one plastic tub, and several 5 gallon pails. Wow. A daunting task lay ahead of me.
With recipe book in hand, I took to cooking green tomatoes for the next two weeks. Green tomato sauce, green tomato salsa, green tomato ketchup, green tomato chutney, and last but not least, green tomato pickles. Of course we made fried green tomatoes too. Whew, were you tired after reading that? I was sure tired after making all that.
I made enough green tomato sauce to last us until the next century. The salsa will last until next year, even after giving most of it away for Christmas presents. Honey, hope you like pickles, because we’ll be eating those ’til the cows come home. Oh, my, we don’t have a cow. Looks like we’ll be eating those pickles for a long time.
Nothing goes to waste here on the farm. Not if I can help it.
Recipe For Green Tomato Chutney
Ingredients:
- 2 lbs. green tomatoes, chopped
- 2 lbs. tart apples, peeled and chopped
- 2 cups onions, chopped
- 1 cup raisins
- 3-3/4 cups light brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger
- 2 teaspoons black peppercorns, crushed
- 2 teaspoons pickling spice (hot pickling spice is optional)
- 2 Tbs pickling salt
- 2 garlic cloves
- 2 Tbs onion powder
- 3 cups vinegar
- 2-3 cups water
Combine green tomatoes, apples, onions, raisins, brown sugar, ginger, peppercorns, pickling spices, salt, onion and garlic in a non metallic pan. Add the 2-3 cups water. Add one cup vinegar. Cook mixture over low heat. Add remaining vinegar when mixture boils down and tomatoes are soft.
Stir often. The mixture should thicken in about one hour. Cook longer if need be.
When thickened, transfer chutney to sterilized jars. Seal when cool. Store in a cool, dark place.
Lasts up to one year.
Other Uses For Green Tomatoes
- Fried Green Tomatoes
- Green Tomato Pickles
- Green Tomato Jam
- Green Tomato Jelly
- Green Tomato Cake
- Green Tomato Relish
Green Tomato Sauce VS Red Tomato Sauce
The only real difference is the color of the tomato. They taste the same, and are both delicious. Make sure you can enough to last you until next year!
Fried Green Tomato Recipe
A delicious tried and true recipe from our kitchen to yours.
Ingredients:
- A few green tomatoes
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1 Tbsp garlic powder- more or less to suit taste
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1/2 tsp black pepper (ground)
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup milk
- 1 cup bread crumbs (flavored bread crumbs are optional)
- Olive Oil
Mix the eggs and milk into one bowl and set aside.
Pour the bread crumbs, and all spices into a shallow plate and mix well.
Cut green tomato into slices, a little on the thicker side. They hold up better if they are thicker.
Dip the tomato into the egg/milk mix and then dredge them into the bread crumbs. Place into heated fry pan. Continue this until all are cooked.
Cook on med to med high heat in 1/4 cup of olive oil. As you cook, you may need to add more olive oil, as the bread crumbs soak up the oil.