Green Tomatoes~Olive Style

I’ve finished off the rest of the carrots.  Twenty-five pounds in total.  I did two jars of little carrot parts…the weirdos.  One jar for me and one for my friend who gifted me all of these little pretties.

Some have two legs, some have three, all of them shout out pickle me!  The one in the middle looks like he’s doing the splits and he actually seems to have some expression on his orange carrot face.

Put up Total:

• 1.5L and 1L carrot parts – regular mason jar
• 2 x 500mL wide mouth mason jars
• 1L regular mouth mason jar
• 7 x 500mL pickled carrots with jalapenos – wide mouth mason jars

I also accomplished the stemming, washing, jarring, and processing of 12 pounds of tiny green tomatoes.  Just a hint…the smaller the better.  It seems that the tiny baby tomato skins don’t burst as badly as the next size up (that being about the size of a loonie).  And, they are also fine when quartered.  Talk about easy.  It doesn’t get much easier than a little vinegar salt water poured into a jar and processed for 15 minutes. 

RECIPE FOR GREEN TINY TOMATOES:

• 3 1/2 cups white vinegar
• 3 1/2 cups water
• 1/4 cup pickling or canning salt
• 5 lbs small, firm green tomatoes, halved or quartered, or green cherry tomatoes
• 6-7 cloves garlic
• 6-7 heads fresh dill (or 1-2 tsp dill seeds or 2 tsp dried dill weed)
• 6-7 bay leaves

1. In a large stainless steel saucepan, combine vinegar, water and pickling salt.  Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring to dissolve salt.  Remove from heat.
2. Pack tomatoes into hot jars to within a generous 1/2″ of top of jar.  Add 1 clove garlic, 1 head dill (or 1-2 tsp dill seeds or 2 tsp dried dill weed) and 1 bay leaf to each jar.  Ladle hot pickling liquid into jar to cover tomatoes, leaving 1/2 inch headspace.  Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace, if necessary, by adding hot pickling liquid.  Wipe rim.  Centre lid on jar.  Screw band down until resistance is met, then increase to finger-tip tight.
3. Place jars in canner, ensuring they are completely covered with water.  Bring to a boil and process for 15 minutes.  Remove canner lid.  Wait 5 minutes, then remove jars, cool, label and store.

NOTE:  It is important to leave the processed jars in the water bath for 5 minutes to prevent siphoning.  Simply turn the element off, remove lid and wait.  This way you will not lose your precious liquid.

I like the look of both the tiny green tomatoes and the wedges because the skins did not burst.  Don’t worry if the skins pop on your fruit; this is normal when processing jars in a hot water bath.  This happened to both our plums and pickled crab apples despite poking them several times with a fork.

Put up Total:

• 9 x 1L regular mason jars (2 Magic and 1 Dominican)
• 2 x 500mL wide mouth mason jars