Green Tomatoes

I am still learning lots about gardening.  I always hated it when my neighbors back east called me a farmer.  I am anything but.  I know so little but I am willing to learn.

Case in point, green tomatoes.  I always left my green tomatoes on the vine and if they didn't ripen before the first frost then they became compost.  This year I learned that all of  those green tomatoes can be saved. 

Pat and Jim (the same ones who let me help butcher their chickens) invited me out to their farm a couple of weeks ago to pick green tomatoes.  Once again I figured never turn down free food and I will find something to do with it.  Pat then told me that if I took a box with newspaper on the bottom, placed a layer of green tomatoes with an apple wedge on the paper, add another sheet of newspaper with a another layer of green tomatoes and another apple wedge and cover them up with newspaper, my green tomatoes will all ripen to a beautiful red.  Ok.  Let's try it.

Guess what? It works.  I now have a whole counter of red tomatoes to be canned.  Which is on the agenda for tonight.  Pat also gave me a recipe for green tomato relish.  She even let me have a taste of her relish and I have to say that it was delicious.  So today, we made some.  I have been eating the little bit that didn't fill up a jar and really like it.  I know it will be good for egg salads and such or even a topping on hamburgers or hotdogs. 

Here is the recipe:

24 green tomatoes (blossom ends and bad spots removed but leave skins on)
8 onions

Grind them all up and put in strainers and strain for 24 hours to get out all the juice.

On the next day add the following to your tomato/onion mixture:
5 green peppers (ground up)
4 cups sugar
4 cups white vinegar
2 T  mustard seeds
1 T celery seeds
1 T canning salt

Heat mixture for 15 minutes.  Add to pint size canning jars and process for 10 minutes (water bath)

The recipe said it made 9 pints but I only got 7 pints out of it.