Garden Emergency! The Tomato Plants are Dying: Two Recipes for Green Tomatoes

My tomato plants are absolutely loaded down with green tomatoes of all sizes.  The Better Boys are big with attractive ridges, the Yellow Pears and Sweet 100s each have multiple fruits on each branch.  Alas, they won't make it to the ripening stage.  For some reason I have yet to identify (most likely a creeping fungus) every single tomato plant is dying.  The leaves and branches are turning brown from the bottom heading up.  Gardening is like that sometimes.  You win some, you lose some.  I am grieving the fact that I won't be able to indulge in my favorite summer lunch, the tomato sandwich.  I'll have to cry into my pillow later, though, because I have to save the green tomatoes, and time is of the essence.  I looked up two green tomato recipes in an old Mennonite Cookbook published in 1950, and tweaked them to suit our modern taste.  One is for green tomato pickles and one is for green tomato jam.  Remember to follow good canning practices .  Here are the recipes:

Green tomato pickles in a brine of vinegar, salt, sugar, and tears.

Green Tomato Pickles:  Wash and slice 1 gallon green tomatoes.  In a large bowl layer these with 10 thinly sliced onions, cover with 2 pints vinegar, 1/4 c. salt, 1 c. sugar and 1 tbsp mustard seeds.  Let stand overnight.  The next morning, pack mixture into sterilized jars and boil to seal for 10 minutes.  We used yellow pear tomatoes for this project, and I didn't like the texture, although the flavor was good.  Hubby liked them.   I also used this recipe for sugar snap peas, which I loved.

Green Tomato Jam: Wash 8 c. green tomatoes and cover with boiling water for 5 minutes.  Drain and slice, or use whole if they are cherry types.  In a bowl layer tomatoes and  2 sliced lemons, top with 1/4 c. vinegar and 4 c. sugar.  Let stand over night.  In the morning, cook over medium heat in a saucepan with 1 tsp ground ginger, 1 tsp ground cinnamon, 2 tsp ground cumin and 1/2 tsp. ground cloves.  Cook for about 2 hours, or until a fork dipped in the mix becomes coated.  Pour into sterilized jars and seal in boiling water for 10 minutes. This turned out great.  I served it over goat cheese with crusty bread.