Usually by now we have had the first light frost and with it comes the decision of what to do with all those green tomatoes. Of course, I wrap the larger ones in newspaper and store them in the garage. I know that you always pride yourself in still having your own tomatoes and peppers on Thanksgiving, and a few times even on Christmas. I have never had them last that long, but of course, your killing frosts are several weeks behind ours.
Some years back, I was in Woman’s Club with a woman from New York. (Well, we can’t choose where we were born, and she did leave the place.) She used to serve a really good relish, and she wouldn’t share the recipe for the longest time. Finally she shared the recipe with me. It turned out that she was embarrassed to admit that it was one of those Use Up The End Of The Garden Relishes like Chow Chow. Maybe in New York one is ashamed to feeding people green tomato relish, but we sure aren’t here in Iowa. The shame here in the heartland would be in letting any garden produce go to waste. Heck, we give prizes to recipes that use up every little green tomato!
New York Uncooked Relish:
18 small green tomatoes
6 medium yellow onions
6 carrots
3 sweet green peppers
3 sweet red peppers
½ head of cabbage
1 tablespoon canning salt
1 quart cider vinegar
6 cups white sugar
1 tablespoon celery seed
1 tablespoon dry mustard
Put all the cleaned and seeded vegetables through a meat grinder on a coarse grind or a food processor. Place in a large mixing bowl. Add salt and mix well. Let set for about 10 minutes. Drain overnight through a large colander.
In large non-aluminum saucepan bring the vinegar, sugar, celery seed, and dry mustard to a boil. Boil for one minutes and remove from heat. Pour over the vegetables and mix well. Pour into hot sterilized jars and seal.
Makes about 3 ½ quarts
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