for many of you, the first frost is approaching, and that means that you should start thinking about saving some of those green tomatoes that aren’t going to have a chance to ripen.  fried green tomatoes are delicious, yes.  but PICKLED GREEN TOMATOES are a must-try.  esp if you are a pickle-lover (too easy).

this is a family recipe.  my mom made these pickles when i was a child.  i clearly remember seeing  them resting in their murky liquid on a dusty shelf in our garage along with all of her other food preservation projects.  i loved it when she would bring a jar of them inside and crack it open.  sour, salty, fermented pickles!  to a child, a pickle is a pickle.  now that i’m a grown-up, i know what made them so good — green tomatoes make a wonderful pickle due to their thick rind and firm insides.

when i made mine today, i added a couple of things to my jars:  crumbled bay leaf, a few black peppercorns, and a couple of extra buds of garlic.  because i am pregnant and greedy, i am not fermenting mine@ room temp for 4 weeks.  i am making refrigerator pickles (which are ready in 3-5 days, but i’ll let mine sit for 1 looooong week.)   in addition, i prefer that extra CRUNCH in my pickles, and you will definitely get more of a crunch out of a refrigerator pickle as opposed to a fermented one.

ye olde “dilly green tomatoes” recipe (forgive the C&P job):

Wash and pack tomatoes in sterilized jars.  (boil jars 10 minutes)

To each quart add:          1 garlic bud

1 tsp dry dill weed or seed

1 hot pepper or ¼ tsp red pepper flake

For 8 quarts make liquid:

2 qts water

1 qt cider vinegar

1 cup un-iodized (kosher) salt or use sea salt

Boil this for 5 minutes and fill jars to ½ inch from top

Place seals (that have been boiled and are hot) on top of jars and put rings on.

Let pickles rest for 3 weeks before using.