Early Snow

It's still only October, but there's a good three inches of snow on the ground and it's still falling thick and fast outside my window. In anticipation of the storm and the cold weather that has accompanied it, earlier this week we finally brought in all the last cold sensitive items from the garden - tomatoes (ripe, half ripe, and green), sweet peppers, and hot peppers. We still have broccoli, leeks, fennel, carrots, radishes, and lots of greens out there that like the cold and will probably be just fine.

Green peppers (both hot and sweet) will continue to ripen if brought indoors and kept somewhere cool and dark. Some people like to bring in the whole plant and hang it upside down, but I've also had good luck just keeping a big pile of peppers in a paper bag in my chilly pantry. Tomatoes will also ripen indoors, though the quality will never be as good as summer tomatoes (even the ones that ripen on the vine late in the season suffer in flavor from the cold nights).

I roasted the ripe tomatoes and put them in the freezer. The half ripe ones are sitting in a bowl to ripen over the next week or so. The green ones (about 10 lbs) I think I'm going to use for Green Tomato and Apple Chutney, which I will can (but first I need to get some more canning jars).

Green peppers can be frozen just like ripe ones (halve, seed, freeze freezer bags), but I'm hoping some more of mine will ripen up before they shrivel. The hot peppers I decided to try pickling this year, something I have not done before. Now I have 9 half-pint jars of lovely red, green, and purple pickled hot peppers. Pickling mellows their heat and intensifies their flavor, making their great for pizza, salsa, Mexican eggs, nachos, etc.

Roasted Green Tomato Salsa

Since I had a lot of tomatoes, and I just can't leave well enough alone, here's another salsa recipe for green tomatoes.

7 lbs green (unripe) tomatoes, cored and coarsely chopped
1/2 lb green chili peppers and/or green sweet peppers, seeded and coarsely chopped
2 medium onions, coarsely chopped
4 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
Salt to taste
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
3/4 cup lime juice
1/2 cup sugar

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Place the tomatoes, peppers, onions, and garlic in roasting pans (I needed two) and sprinkle generously with salt. Roast for about 30 minutes, stirring once or twice.

Puree the vegetables and any liquid they have given off, then pour it all into a large pot. Add the vinegar, lime juice, and sugar and mix well. Taste and adjust seasonings if needed.

Refrigerate, freeze, or can.

To can, use pint jars and process for 15 minutes in a boiling water bath.

Yield: about 6 pints.

Green Tomato Salsa

As I had hoped, this worked out pretty well. The result is much like salsa verde more traditionally made with tomatillos: a green, fairly thin, smooth salsa with a nice sour edge to it.

7-8 lbs green (unripe) tomatoes
1/2 lb green chili peppers and sweet green peppers (ratio up to you)
2 large onions
1 cup lime juice
1/4 cup sugar, or to taste
1/2 tsp ground cumin, or to taste
Salt to taste

Coarsely chop the tomatoes, seed and chop the peppers, and chop the onions. Put it all in a large pot with a splash of water, and cook until nice and soft, 15-20 minutes or so, stirring occasionally.

Puree the vegetables, then stir in the lime juice, sugar, cumin, and salt. Taste and adjust seasonings as needed. Refrigerate, freeze, or can.

To can, use pint jars and process for 15 minutes in a boiling water bath.

Yield: about 6 pints.

Green Tomatoes

We had our first semi-hard frost here a night or two ago, and there's a hard frost forecast for tomorrow night. Time to finally bring in the last of the green tomatoes still on the vine. Yesterday my husband picked about 8 pounds of them. Last year at this time I made and canned a bunch of Green Tomato and Apple Chutney, which was delicious. This year I think I may experiment with green tomato salsa. Unripe tomatoes are a bit like tomatillos in texture and flavor, so it seems like they ought to work pretty well in a riff on salsa verde. If it comes out well, I'll post the recipe.

Green Tomato and Apple Chutney

Green tomatoes picked in October will slowly ripen indoors in a paper bag or wrapped in newspaper. But the flavor and texture will never compare to those picked ripe in warm weather. So, facing a bowl of the last of our green ones, I decided to try something different. This recipe is based on many different ones that I found on the Internet. The concept behind all of them was green tomatoes combined with apples, raisins, and spices. The result is sweet and tangy, perfect to go with grilled or broiled meat, or on crackers or toasted pita triangles. Try it with cheddar as well.

6 cups chopped green tomatoes (cored but not seeded or peeled)
3 cups chopped apples (peeled and cored first)
1 medium onion, finely chopped
3 Tbsp minced ginger root
3/4 cup raisins
1-4 hot peppers, seeded and minced (optional)
1/4 apple cider vinegar
1/4 tsp allspice
1/2 cup brown sugar
Salt and pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in a Dutch oven or similar wide-bottomed pot. Add a splash of water and bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer over very low heat for about an hour, stirring periodically.

Makes 4-5 cups.