Green Tomato Relish

My Dad's father died in 1936 when my father was 9 years old. He was an only child and was raised by his mother. She worked in a thrift/secondhand store. Money was tight.

My paternal grandmother was a tiny woman. Four bluegill fillets, a carrot and half of a potato were a full meal for her. Consequently, when fishing, we never threw any "keepers" back at the end of the day if there was more than one fish in the creel. After all, that was enough for a meal for Granny.

Every once in a blue moon, Granny would ask my dad for some delicacy that she desired. My dad would pull himself through a knot-hole to get it, even if it was extremely inconvenient. I remember him collecting dandelion greens for her.

He was a good example of a devoted son.

One late-September day, my grandmother asked for green tomatoes. She wanted to make Green Tomato Relish. I remember eating some of it and little else except that her recipe also had sweet corn in it.

I am not a lover of sweet pickles but I do love dill pickles. And I had a good supply of green tomatoes today after clearing a lane between the two rows of tomatoes. Just like my dad had an over-abundance of green tomatoes just before the September frosts.

I am soaking the tomatoes over night in calcium-rich pickling juice. Tomorrow I will process them at 180F for 30 minutes.

I was going to pickle the golf-ball sized fruit whole but I could not fit very many in a jar. The green tomatoes were very firm and undoubtedly have a lot of pectin. It isn't relish but they might end up that way at some time in the future.

For the record, Green Tomato Relish is not a niche thing. There are boatloads of recipes out there.