My most exciting discovery in the camp garden was green tomatoes! I have been wanting to pickle green tomatoes and since the baby ones at my local market have been a bit out of my price range, I was excited to get tons of them for free!
Since the recipe from White On Rice Couple that I used to pickle cucumbers in a previous post turned out great and was so incredibly simple, I decided to use it again.  I also brought back a ton of pickling cucumbers so I made some pickles with these as well.  I never knew that there was a variety of cucumbers specifically grown for pickling.  They don’t have the wax coating that most supermarket cucumbers have to seal in moisture.  I found a lot of interesting cucumber and pickling facts here.

If you can grow your own cucumbers or buy them farm fresh, I would recommend this over consuming supermarket cucumbers, or any supermarket vegetables for that matter.  If you’ve read any of Michael Pollan’s books or articles or have seen Food Inc, you are aware that the corn industry seems to have taken over everything.  Something I’ve learned from his book Omnivores Dilemma is that even the wax coating on supermarket vegetables is made with corn. Unfortunately, as Pollan often talks about, growing corn requires more pesticides than any other food crop. That being said, I’m definitely an advocate for buying fresh and local.  Support local farmers and treat your body well.

I’ve included the pickling recipe from the previous entry again below…

about 1 pound small, green toma­toes / cucum­bers
2 quarts water
1 cup white vine­gar
1/2 cup can­ning & pick­ling salt (can use sea salt or kosher salt, just make sure it fully dis­solves)
2 tea­spoons cel­ery salt
2 cloves minced gar­lic
chili flakes (optional for a lit­tle heat!)
glass con­tain­ers for pickling

1. In a large enough saucepan, add water, vine­gar, kosher/sea salt bring to a strong sim­mer, stir­ring until the salt has all dis­solved.
2. Ster­il­ize your glass con­tain­ers by sub­merg­ing them in a pot of boil­ing water.
3. Place tomatoes/cucumbers in glass con­tain­ers and add hot brine until they are com­pletely cov­ered.
4. Allow the brine in the jars to cool, then cover and put in fridge. You’ll want to wait a few days for the to fla­vor develop before eating.