Pickled Green Tomatoes

A couple weeks ago, Carlos and I played our first show at the new Farmers Market of the Ozarks in Springfield. It was a very rainy day amongst many new farmer friends. After the show, we got a big basket of donations from many generous farmers. In the basket was 5 juicy, slightly sour green tomatoes. We fried one, baked one into a casserole, and the rest I decided to pickle this morning. :) 

 

Supplies & Ingredients

two green tomatoes

two cloves garlic

three parsley stems

four chive leaves

1/4 onion (last minute decision, not pictured above)

freshly ground pepper

heaping tablespoon sea salt

apple cider vinegar

olive oil

water

knife, cutting board, quart mason jar

Slice and chop the ingredients. Since the jar will sit and maturate for a couple of weeks, it's not necessary to chop things very small. The ingredients will all absorb one another. Many people even like keeping their tomatoes whole.

 

When I pickle things, I always like to do it in layers. This is how I did it - tomatoes, pepper, herbs, tomatoes, pepper, herbs. It's like a pickle casserole in a jar! 

After all the ingredients are layered in the jar, I mix my pickling juice. I normally abstain from using specific measurements, but instead use a general method. In this case, here is my method:

A heaping tablespoon (ish) of sea salt per quart jar of pickles.

I fill my jars with 1/3 vinegar to 2/3 water leaving room at the top.

 Since I still had loads of room after adding my pickling juice, I decided to add onions! Yuuuummy. :) I threw them in the jar and shook it up. Shake SHAKE Shake

To ensure that unwanted bacterias don't penetrate the jar, I top it off with olive oil and make sure everything is completely submerged. 

... And that's all there is to it!!!

You can use this recipe to pickle many vegetables, even fruits!