living in the woods and making stuff

Yesterday and today I made some green tomato pickles. I used two different recipes, one that reminded me of my Grampa, and the other because it called for lime (calcium hydroxide) which I have never used. Both recipes are from The Joy of Pickling, by Linda Ziedrich. I started the pickles yesterday (after a trip to the store for lime) as they required an overnight of soaking before they were ready to process.

Freshly sliced green tomatoes. So many shades of green, marbling in and around seeds and cavities.

Tomato slice soaking in a solution of lime (calcium hydroxide) and water. This process creates much crisper pickles. I soaked the tomatoes overnight, and when I took them out of the solution they were stiff as a board! Quite different from the tomato slices soaking in salt for the curry pickles.

After rinsing and soaking, rinsing and soaking, and rinsing and soaking again, I mixed the lime tomatoes with onions and spices and simmered for a little while, and then I had to stuff them into the jars. The lime made them so stiff that I ended up cutting the big ones in order to fit them in.

The second pickle was made with curry powder and other spices. I made them because they reminded me of my Grampa, who always seemed to like spicing food with curry powder. The tomatoes for the curry pickle were significantly softer (no lime, just sitting out with salt).

These are the lime pickles after the jars were processed in boiling water. It is always sad to me when fruits and vegetables lose their vibrant color. They have to sit for at least three weeks now until they are ready to eat!