(Unripe Tomatoes)
These tomatoes were from my garden when I had a bumper crop one year. There were a lot of tomatoes on the vines that I dind’t feel bad picking them before they ripened.
My husband requested fried green tomatoes one evening. So, I reluctantly picked some large, beautiful tomatoes that were still green to fry with his dinner. I really felt bad picking them because I was anticipating to eat some bright red and juicy delicious ripe tomatoes. But I had a lot of tomatoes so I picked some anyway and fried them.
After I fried enough tomatoes for dinner, I still had some left from what I picked but I did not want to have fried green tomatoes again the next day so I decided to pickle them.
The pickled tomates tasted really good that we were eating them almost with every meal. My son and his family came to visit one day and I asked them to taste the pickles that I was bragging about. They loved it and kept eating it from the jar so I had to give them a fresh jar to take home. I ended up picking more green tomatoes later and made more pickles. Even then, the jarred tomatoes did not last very long because we were eating them before they could even get pickled and cured well.
By that time, the tomatoes that I left on the vines started to turn pink so I just let them finish ripening and hope I could get more green tomatoes later but the hot Summer came and they never produced more fruits. I let the vines live but I still watered and cared for them all through the searing heat of summer. As soon as the temperature at night cooled at the onset of Fall, I noticed that they started to bloom again. I watched the blooms everyday to see if they would set fruits and some did. I observed them and waited for the tiny, little bulbs of fruits start to grow larger. The plants do not have as many fruits as they had in spring but I’m still excited that they are making some. It is now at the end of Fall and the start of Winter but thankfully we have not had any bad freeze yet and the tomatoes are now large but still green.
I’m afraid the tomatoes will not ripen in time before we have bad, cold freezing nights so I am thinking of picking the still green tomatoes and pickle them to preserve them instead of letting them get ruined by the freeze.
And here is the recipe I concocted and used:
- About 4 cups green tomato wedges (bite sized)
- 1 cup white vinegar
- 1 cup water
- 3 tsp. Pickling salt (1 TBS)
- 1 large clove garlic slightly crushed or sliced thin
- 1 tsp. sugar
- ¼ tsp. cracked black pepper or peppercorn
- 1 bay leaf crushed
- 1 sprig fresh dill or 1 tsp. dry dill weed (optional)
- 1 or more chili pepper (your choice of pepper or ½ tsp. dried red chili flakes)
Simmer all the ingredients except the tomatoes for about 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes and remove the pan from heat. Push the tomatoes in the liquid and let soak for a few minutes until you see the tomatoes change in color.
Transfer to jars, cover and refrigerate. Let the flavors meld before eating.
If preserving, put the tomatoes in hot jars with 1” headspace and pour the hot liquid maintaining the 1” headspace. Cover and process in a water-bath for 15 minutes.
You can keep it as fresh pickles in the refrigerator without processing in water bath.
Kusina ni Norie 
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