Tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes

That's ALOT of tomatoes

We were pretty lucky this year in this part of Virginia. Our first killing frost normally appears around Mid-October. But this year, we hit the jackpot. We didn't see our first big one until around the beginning of November and it extended my growing season by at least two weeks if not more.

While everyone was ripping out vines, tilling their soil, I was still desperately holding on inorder to eek out the last wee bit of sunshine and warmth. That's not to say that I didn't rip out beans and such like, but I was loathe to touch the tomatoes. Hell, they were still flowering and creating babies!

And my procrastination (or persistence depending on how you look at it) paid off. We had a bumper late crop as pictured above.

Which raised the question - What do I do with all these tomatoes?

Unfortunately, late tomatoes aren't very tasty. They are normally pithy, a bit bland, and generally a pale imitation of their earlier counterparts. I know when we're getting late in the season by how many are in the fruit bowl - it's in direct correlation to Jon's rye bread with mayo and tomato fetish. When the tomatoes start losing their flavor Jon also starts to lose interest, hence more tomatoes in the bowl.

So what to do with them especially the green ones?

The green ones with the most promise of turning are kept aside in a brown paper bag to ripen. Eventually they will probably become sauce. Those unlikely to do anything other than rot will no doubt be turned into some sort of relish. If you've got vegetables you don't know what to do with, there's always relish/chutney/chow chow/pickle. Sad but true. In fact, I went looking for something different with green tomatoes, but gave up after my 6th or 7th chutney recipe. Having never had green tomatoes before I wanted something fun and exciting. Instead what I got was relish. BUT, I have to say it was pretty tasty relish and in fact, weirdly enough, it resembles hotdog relish. If you've got green tomatoes that you want to use up, try it. You might like it.

My Green Tomato Hotdog Relish Recipe

• 2 quarts chopped green tomatoes
• 1 quart chopped onion
• 3 cups apple cider vinegar
• 3 chopped and seeded green peppers
• 3 cloves of garlic minced
• 1 pound of brown sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp dry mustard
• 1 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 1/2 tsp grated ginger
• 1 tsp celery seed

Wash and chop the tomatoes to make 2 quarts. Peel and chop the onions to make 3 quarts total. Sprinkle a 1/2 cup of salt on the mix and allow these veggies to stand for 12 hours or overnight. Then put them in a colander and rinse under cold running water. Drain.

Bring the rest of the ingredients to a boil. Add the tomatoes and onions and bring back to a boil. Simmer for 15-20 minutes. Make sure to stir often. When the tomatoes are translucent, the relish is done.

Pack into hot jars with seals and lids and process for 15 minutes in a hot water bath.