Green Tomatoes

This will be a series, short and flavorful, about how I used up 72 green tomatoes.
I chose to make some Jam, which I turned into Chutney as I realized pectin would be a necessity I didn't have in tomato jam making, Salsa Verde, and Sweet & Spicy Pickle Wedges.

 You may remember my mention in my  Cranberry Jalapeno Jam post I mentioned that my tomato plant had gone unwatered one too many times and was just about dead. Well, God had other plans for that plant apparently, as I continued to be negligent on the watering front He made up for it by sending loads of rain. That nearly dead, dried out twig of a plant turned into this by the end of summer:

the pot this plant is in is actually
a few steps down the staircase now hidden by the plant

some of the tendrils reaching the bottom of the steps

the 72 green tomatoes awaiting their destiny

This is one of the very few tomatoes to have fully ripened and reached its fullest potential: sliced for hamburgers and leftovers salted for pure tomato devouring 

And as you can see in the last picture it was painful to chop up such beautiful meaty potential but as Jerusha kept trying to eat them saying "appy appy" (mistaking them for apples, in case you are unused to deciphering toddler lingo) I wasted no time trying to let them ripen, plus it has been my experience in tomatoes that they don't reach perfection anyways if picked green and ripened afterwards; they end up a grainy let down.

the one last tomato that was nearly
ready for picking when the frost arrived

This was a Beefsteak tomato plant and you can be sure I will grow another (or maybe more than one!) next year as they are amazingly meaty, flavorful and large but not cracking and rotten large.

Recipe's will be posted following this!