Iced Green Tomato Pickles

We finally finished our move and closed on our house!  What a relief to have that behind us.  

The day  before we needed to be out I was ripping plants off tomato cages and found many perfect looking green tomatoes that would never have time to ripen before the frosts and shorter days arrive.  I filled a grocery sack with this recipe in mind.

{That was a fun day.  I decided the morning we were supposed to finish moving out of our house to schedule a play date and be ready to leave town for my parent's farm with a cat and two dogs...that needed to be loaded up from the other house along with a super yard gait, kennels, food, cleaning supplies... and pack for three children and have our necessary belongings ready before 2:00.  Oh ya, and start the iced green tomato pickles and haul them along without them spilling in the back of the truck.  No worries!  I even managed to do two loads of laundry at the other house while I was loading up and had time to do one last walk around the acreage with a video camera.  It was a nice break to play with our friends and thankfully Ingrid bailed me out.  She sent me to her garden to get more green tomatoes for the needed 7.5 lbs. and gave me lime to use.}

My friend, Ingrid, makes these and I tried them last winter and was instantly hooked.  It's a sweet-sour pickle recipe with warm fall spices.  They taste nothing like a tomato!  Honestly, it's hard to describe and hard to imagine how they taste without trying one.  I think they are similar to pepper jelly...without the heat.  And obviously without the pepper, but some heat would be nice twist in them.  If you have left over green tomatoes this fall, this is a fun way to use them up.

Iced Green Tomato Pickles

7.5 pounds green tomatoes (weigh the bucket after you have cut them and add to make 7.5 pounds)

2 gallons water

3 cups pickling lime

4 lbs. sugar

3 pints vinegar

1 tsp each, whole cloves, ginger, all spice, celery seed, mace, cinnamon

Cut tomatoes in thinner slices, quarter and halve some slices.  The littlest tomatoes make cute whole slices.  Weigh your bucket of sliced green tomatoes to check that you have 7.5 pounds.  Then go raid your friend's green tomatoes because yours are in a pile in the woods behind a garden  you don't own anymore.  

In a large container, add 2 gallons water, 3 cups lime and sliced green tomatoes.  Soak tomatoes for 24 hours.  Note: lime won't dissolve, just stir it around periodically.

Drain and rinse tomatoes of lime.  It's best to do this outside to keep the lime out of your plumbing!  Soak tomatoes in fresh water for 4 hours.  Change water every 20-30 minutes, at least 8 times total. Drain well.

Make syrup.  Bring to a boil to dissolve sugar in vinegar and add spices.  Pour hot syrup over tomatoes.  Let stand over night {or 6-8 hours}.  At first it won't seem like there is enough syrup, but then the tomatoes begin to soften and shrink.  Stir periodically to coat all tomatoes.    

Boil tomatoes in syrup for 1 hour until tomatoes are more clear.

Seal in jars while hot.  Store a couple weeks before opening.

Serve with cream cheese and crackers.     

~makes 9 pints

Place jars in dishwasher when you begin to boil syrup and tomatoes.  Jars will be hot when ready to fill.  Start a large canner or roaster with boiling water on the stove to set filled jars in.  Put new lids in water while waiting to fill jars.  Fill jars within a 1/2 inch from the top of the jar.  Wipe with a clean, hot dishcloth any juice from the top of the jar.  Place lid on jar, tightly screw on ring.  Place filled jar in boiling water bath being careful that water remains an inch below the level of the top of the jar.  Once all jars have been filled and placed in water bath, cover the roaster with a lid, turn off the heat and let sit undisturbed overnight or until completely cooled.  Remove rings (they will rust) on sealed jars and store jars in a cool, dry place.   

*recipe adapted from my friend Ingrid

Note to self:  Timeline:

Cut and soak Friday 8:00 am to Saturday 8:00 am.

Rinse 8 times every 20-30 minutes until 12:00 pm Saturday.

12:00 Pour boiling syrup over tomatoes.

Rest 12:00 pm to 7 or 8:00 pm. Saturday.

Boil one hour, until 8 or 9:00 pm.

Fill jars.

Let sit over night in water bath.

Sealed and ready on Sunday morning! 

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