Green Tomato Pickles

One thing grew exceptionally well in my garden this year. Tomatoes. I am glad. Tomatoes happen to be one of my favorite things in the entire world, and garden fresh tomatoes make my mouth water and fill my mind with recipes galore. As such, I have tried very hard to become GOOD at growing tomatoes.

I'm not perfect however. :)

So, while I was deluged with tomatoes.... the cooler weather left me dealing with a large quantity of tomatoes that were not ripe.

Last year, my family tried fried green tomatoes. They were... ok. But honestly, we didn't care for them. We thought they could make a nice, small side dish. But certainly not a meal for our family.

Since then I had come across another idea that I have been waiting anxiously to try. Green Tomato Pickles.

The directions I first came across seemed extremely easy (which I LIKE).

When you finish off your jar of pickles, keep the juice. Then chop up your green tomatoes (it recommended into fourths) and put them in the jar for one month, in the fridge, to soak up the juices and flavor.

Easy right?!

I have been buying the gallon pickles jars lately. I am hoping to replace all my plastic food containers with these good, strong glass jars. I think they will be quite attractive lined up on my pantry shelves, next to my home canned soups, veggies and jams.

Just a week or so ago, my children finished off the last pickle in a jar. Fortunately I remembered and asked that they keep the juice and jar in the fridge for this project.

Today I went out and collected some of my harvest.

Here is what I will be making for dinner. Sauteed Zucchini, Tomatoes and Onion. This is a family favorite. Sometimes I add bacon. YUM!

Here I have gathered some of the over ripe tomatoes. I will attempt to collect some seed for next years garden from these. These tomato plants were very large and strong, producing very well.

Here, I have a grocery bag filled with about half of my green tomatoes. They are mostly different varieties of cherry tomatoes.

I got out my gallon sized pickle jar with remaining brine, rinsed handfuls of green tomatoes at a time, then chopped them into small bite size pieces, and dropped them into the brine. I believe that cutting the tomatoes, enables them to soak up the juices more efficiently, so I cut even the smallest tomatoes at least in half.

While I have never tried this before, I am very optimistic that it will be delicious and a nice treat for my whole family. Because of this, I also decided to venture a little further. I perused some brine recipes and made my own for a second smaller jar to try out.

I used 1 cup water, 2 tbsp salt, almost 3/4 cup of apple cider vinegar, 10 smallish chopped garlic cloves, and added 1 tbsp of cilantro. (I love cilantro. mmmmmmmmmmmmm)

They look so beautiful to me. I am soooooo eager to try them.

One month from now. I will let you know how they turned out.