Green Tomato Chow Chow

Grandma Moore--my Mom's grandma--was one of many of the generation who knew how to thrive as well as survive.  The motto "reduce, reuse, recycle" may have even seemed a bit fancy to her, as "make do or do without" was the unconscious practice of many in her time and location.  A widow with a large family, she managed to keep the kids and keep the farm in what is considered by experts as "marginal farm country"--the beautiful ridges and valleys of southwest Wisconsin that I am so proud to have called home for 30+ years. 

The following recipe is probably a pretty good representation of her approach to using all that the good land produced to provide flavorful condiments to the home-grown fare place with loving hands on the large farm table.  There are always greent tomatos plentiful on the vine at the end of the growing season, catching them before the first frost. Why not capitalize on that green bounty, too?

Food on the farm might be simple, but it didn't have to be without flavor!  All of my maternal relatives are excellant cooks, bakers and candy-makers, starting from "scratch".  In fact, I believe that cooking from "scratch" and using freshly picked produced and homegrown meats are the secrets to their locally reknown culinary reputations. 

My Grandma Mildred Wastlick dictated this recipe to me about 10 years ago.  I reproduced it below just as she described the recipe.  And, I have made a couple of batches, adding even more sugar than the 3 cups my grandma first suggested was probably about right.  She said Grandma Moore liked her chow chow sweet, so I don't think adding 2 cups more would offend her :-).  I use 5 cups of sugar myself.  So far, I enjoyed the chow chow on roasted turkey, pork dishes, sandwiches and on fried potatos.  No kidding--replace that red tomato catsup with green tomato chow chow.

Ella's Green Tomato Chow Chow

1 peck of green tomatow (4 qts or 15#)
6 large onions
4 green peppers
Grind these together and drain off green juice goodl
Use about 1 quart of vinegar, put tomato mixture in it.  Let it boil until it changes color then drain again.
Take 1 quart vinegar, 1 tablespoon ground mustard, 1 tablespoon celery seed, and sugar to suit taste, maybe 3 cups?  Add 1 tablesppon salt--you can tell that by taste, too.
Put the strained tomatos in large pot and let come to boil, place in jars, it keeps without sealing, but I'd heat and seal if I was keeping it long.  You can make it sweeter or less according to your taste.  Grandma Moore liked her's sweet.  (Sue's note:  see above comments!!).