Pickled Green Tomatoes & The Butcher and the Vegetarian
This year’s tomato track record isn’t all that bad yet and we’re immediately jumping on the pickling band-wagon. The current tomato plant count is 4 out of 20 died due to disease, which is much less than what we suffered last year. In 2009, the whole nation suffered a tomato crisis where a late blight hammered many crops and home gardens.
Some tomatoes are more disease resistant than others, so with fingers tightly crossed, were thinking that the dead plants were the weaker varieties.
Too many green tomatoes to count!
Pickled Green Tomatoes Recipe
Still, all the little green tomato globes hanging on the vines are examples of mother nature at her best. Different shapes, shades and sizes of green tomatoes are popping up everywhere and we can’t keep up with the count. If all goes well, these tomato babies will be plump, red , sweet, juicy and ripe in a month or so!
Again, our fingers are tightly crossed for a bumper tomato crop. The wait for the clusters to change hue is always rewarding because every day, they change a little bit in color, size and shape. Yes, we stalk our tomatoes every morning, like every good gardener should. 😉
The vines that did start to die back didn’t all go to waste. After treating the plants with organic neem oil and clipping back the weaker branches, some survived their initial scare and we were able to gather the green tomatoes and pickle them using Tara’s basic brine recipe.
Tara Weaver, writer of the lovely blog Tea and Cookies, had an easy and perfect basic pickling brine that can be customized in all sorts of directions. She suggested a sweet and sour option, which would be a refreshing take on our standard salty-sour brine. Like she says, play with your pickling brine and have fun.
If you’re a lover of great writing, then you probably are already reading Tara on her scrumptious blog. If you aren’t reading Tara yet, then you’ll be treated to her gorgeous prose. It’s a brilliant collection of essays that instantly transport you along in her food travels. Everything that Tara produces is a must-read. Her writing is an escape to a better place when you’re in need of something funny and uplifting.
Her award winning writing is like chatting with a good friend. Tara’s visual, comforting posts, candor and raw honesty are real and genuine.
Tara’s newest book, The Butcher and the Vegetarian, is a lovely example of why this woman has so much talent in every single one of her writing digits. We were immediately connected to this book because the premise of the book was a mirror image of us. When we first met, I was a vegetarian and Todd was all about the meat (he grew up on a cattle ranch).
While I was feasting on grilled tofu, he was gnawing on his favorite t-bone. He’s forever my cowboy.
This fun, funny, intelligent and thought provoking book about food and life says it all in the title: “One Woman’s Romp through a World of Men, Meat and Moral Crisis”. One would think that Tara’s book is a chick-flick on paper, a girl’s romantic Cinderella story about being swept away by an opposite, a knife wielding butcher.
But her book is so deep in her personal journey about eating meat for health reasons and she goes knee deep into the whole business and politics of meat. The culture of meat and its place in our current food chain are just few of the topics she touches on in some eye-opening chapters.
This book needs to be made into a movie and it’s so good that we won’t be surprised that it will one day. Grab a copy and read it now before our predictions come true.
Happy Summer & Green Tomatoes to you all!
-diane
Pickled Green Tomatoes Recipe
Ingredients
- 3 pounds small, green tomatoes (washed, stems removed)
- 2 quarts water
- 1 cup white vinegar
- 1/2 cup canning & pickling salt (can use sea salt or kosher salt, just make sure it fully dissolves)
- 2 teaspoons celery salt
- 2 cloves minced garlic
- chili flakes (optional for a little heat!)
- glass containers for pickling
Instructions
- In a large enough saucepan, add water, vinegar, kosher/sea salt bring to a strong simmer, stirring until the salt has all dissolved.
- Sterilize your glass containers by submerging them in a pot of boiling water.
- Place tomatoes in glass containers and add hot bring until the tomatoes are completely covers.
- Allow the bring in the jars to cool, then cover and put in fridge. You’ll want to wait a few days for the to flavor develop before eating.
- The tomatoes can keep in the fridge for a few months, as long as no mold, scum, spoiling occurs. Check the jars regularly.
It would appear we’re all thinking of pickles and chutney! Lovely photos as ever Diane and Todd. The green toms are so beautifully contrasted against the white and cobalt plates.
fantastic photos and thanks so much for the “Tea and Cookies” recommendation. love great writing and great photos and am adding it to my morning reads. (in addition to your blog, of course.)
I can’t believe I haven’t heard of pickled tomatoes before this. Clearly, I live under a rock. I do have my two large pots again this year with new resolve, though, hoping against the bloom rot I had last year. Glad to know there are other tomato stalkers out there 🙂 Lovely photos of your gorgeous green orbs!
Ah, the green tomatoes look so delicious! We have red and yellow ones, but the only green ones around here are those that are still raw!
And that book goes into my ever lenghtening TBR list right now!
Greetings,
Tiina
Lovely recipe,and I love your website. But I do have one question. Is your quantity of green tomatoes correct in relation to the pickling ingredients? Nine cups of pickling liquid for one pound of tomatoes seems high.
The recipe does leave extra pickling liquid. It is just a base recipe and you can save the extra in a sterilized jar for 2-3 months in a fridge. Tea (where the pickling recipe came from) talks about that in her post.
Beautiful shots and a lovely idea. Cannot wait for the tomatoes to start fruiting now
Great blog! Your photographs are wonderful. I will definately try this recipe- we always end up with green tomatoes at the end of the season. thanks
I love Tara’s writing and can’t wait to read her newest book. Thank you for cajoling me to the book stands with the beautiful photos of tart green tomatoes! Yum!
I look forward to reading Tara’s book and blog.
Grew up eating pickled green tomatoes. My dad loved them. And never heard of “fried green tomatoes” until I was an adult.
LL
i’m not sure about pickled green tomatoes but that book sounds fascinating. i just found you blog and i am in love with it. great work.
Those green tomatoes in the decanters look gorgeous. For a moment, I thought they were little eggplants (the first photo). ***** stars.
I’ve been a longtime reader and never commented, but just wanted to say how much these photos jumped out at me. The color of the cutting board/wall and the freshness of the tomatoes in the brine – just lovely.
i too, am a fan of Tara’s. You know its a great food blog, when you visit for the writing, whether you’re interested in the recipe or not. I can’t wait to read her book, its certainly on my list. Glad to know she has such a fan club, it is well deserved.
I sweewaarre, everything you guys do is beautiful. That just seems so deliciously bold to pickle green tomatoes at the BEGINNING of the season. I always only think of doing it with my end-of-year tomatoes that don’t ripen. I had a similarly decadent moment in my own garden making this Asian Pesto (thought of you guys while making it too … and Heidi Swanson) the other day. I normally only make it end of season with all my crazy crop of basil, but haven’t had enough of a crop the last three years to make any at all. This year, with rockin’ new raised beds and a tree gone bye-bye, I had enough basil overflow to make pesto at the start of the season. Love it!
These photographed beautifully… you have some great shots there. I’m sure they are delicious too.
wow! we’ve got a ton of green cherry & grape tomatoes right now too… we never thought about picking the green ones to pickle! what a great idea. thanks!