Pickling all those green tomatoes

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I have a garden full of green tomatoes. I have hoped the bigger ones will ripen yet, but frost is finally threatening. I am going to try ripening the ones changing colour finally, but there are tons that I don't think ever will this year. I picked off all the little ones tonight, the ping-pong ball sized ones, + or -. I thought to pickle these...can they be pickled whole at that size, or do they need to be quartered too? Some are quite small -- are they ever TOO small to pickle? What about the solanine in green tomatoes? It's what makes green potatoes poisonous to eat.

-- Julie Froelich (firefly1@nnex.net), September 16, 2000

Answers

Sorry, I dont know how to pickle them, but I have a ton of green ones here, too. My mother in law told me to wrap each one individually in newspaper, so they arent touching, put them in a box in a cool, dark place. I stuck them under my basement steps. They are supposed to ripen that way. Has anyone else done this? Hope it helps. Have fun pickling! Carrie in Wis

-- Carrie Wehler (carriew@ticon.net), September 16, 2000.

Wrapping the tomatoes and putting them in newspaper does work, but there are a few things you need to do. Check them often and don't let them touch each other. You have to do this to avoid rot. I didn't bother with the really small tomatoes and some of them never ripened at all. As to where to store them, we were living in a one room camp and I kept them under the sofa. Good luck.

-- Anne Tower (bbill@wtvl.net), September 16, 2000.

The really small ones make wonderful pickles. There is a recipe on the back of Mrs. Wages pickling lime. It comes in a bag and is found with the canning supplies. Substitute the sliced green tomatoes for the cukes and you will get very crisp sweet pickles. Last year we had to pick 2 5gal buckets of green tomatoes and I pickled all of them. Thought I'd have them for a couple of years but at the rate they were consumed we were lucky to have enough to last till this season. If you cant find the recipe I'll post it. Blessings, Peggy

-- Peggy (wclpc@cookeville.com), September 16, 2000.

I just followed the recipe for dilled green tomatoes in the Ball Bluebook. I've always used "normal" sized green tomatoes and quartered them. GL!

-- Brad (Homefixer@SacoRiver.net), September 18, 2000.

Julie, this is probably too late for you, but you can pull the entire plant and hang it upside down. Pick a cool and fairly dry place. And it will be messy, the leaves will dry and get brittle, plus you'll have the occasional tomato fall off, but it does work. Gerbil

-- Gerbil (ima_gerbil@hotmail.com), September 19, 2000.


Wish I had that problem. We had blight and only have two green tomatoes and four on the volunteer plant that didn't get hit.

-- Cindy (atilrthehony_1@yahoo.com), September 22, 2000.

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