Green Tomato Relish

*Fritz* has been predicting COLD weather that moved in today. In anticipation of that event I knew that I needed to put my tomato garden to bed! Saturday was one of those gorgeous, glorious, warm, fall day. I knew that was my window of opportunity. I went out and picked any tomato that was big enough to do anything with regardless of ripeness.

I must have done something right this year in soil prep. Most years I am able to grab hold of the tomato cage and just *yoink* the whole plant out of the ground. There was no *YOINKING* this year! I had to trim off most of the branches and then dig up the root ball! I love this Black Krim Heirloom tomato. Since it is an heirloom tomato I can save seed from this year's crop for next year (or more likely... find the bedding plants next spring- but I will save the seeds!) Look at the root structure on this baby!

Needless to say I had TONS (read- nearly 3 BYU bucketfuls... the new international standard for produce measurements!) of tomatoes- mostly green. Several years ago when I was in the same situation I decided to see if I could substitute green tomatoes for zucchini in my relish recipe. It was wonderful! HA!

This is another one of my ancient recipes. I got this from a friend in Priest River, Idaho in 1974 and apparently didn't have any recipe cards, so being resourceful, I got the cardboard from my latest pair of Albertson's brand panty-hose and make myself a recipe card!

The first step for making relish is to grind, yes, grind- with an old-fashioned hand crank grinder, the tomatoes (or zucchini) and onions. I gives off lots of green tomato *blood* that looks acid green. (Notice the bucket under the grinder to catch the juice... don't for get this important precaution!) The onion juice goes in as well so you can imagine the smell of this juice.

I was looking at all of the poisonous (not really), acid-green juice and mused out loud that there should be a good use for it. Gordon suggested pouring it on the garden to see if it would repel the deer. So we will see if that deters them from eating my ivy this winter. It will either do that or make the ivy grow even faster!

Back to the recipe... add the salt, stir and let it sit over night. The salt draws the juice out of the pulp and makes for a firmer, thicker relish. Next morning drain, rinse with cold water and drain again.  Put this mixture it into a big pot with the remaining ingredients.

You notice this time I have dark red pepper *blood* from the red and green pepper. That just went down the drain.

Stir it all around and let it cook for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. This really is a mixture that takes good care of itself and doesn't need a lot of tending.

Bottle the cooked relish and process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes. And since it make just over 7 pints there is always a little left over to taste.

I've been making this for 38 years now and we love it... I will never use any other kind of relish. It's particularly good in tuna-goo-sam'ichs.