The Marigold Potager – A Zone 3 Prairie Garden

We started making this fantastic ‘green tomato relish’ many, many years ago. It has since became a household staple here at home, and with my kids, as well.

It is made from our own garden grown green tomatoes (grab them before they ripen!), peppers, and onions. Add some spices and that is it.

We all love it because it is a bit tangy, not sweet, is not full of sugars like store bought relish is, and has a bit of crunch to it. This is not a chutney, there are no fruits or sweet bits in it.

Chow chow is is the perfect topping for all sorts of meats, sausages, egg dishes, veggie dogs and hot dogs, is a great burger topping, makes yummy homemade tartar sauce, great in tuna salad ( or faux tuna salad made with chick peas), on meat loaf… truly so versatile and yummy, you will be adding it everywhere. We go through tons of it annually.

One batch makes a good 6 to 8 pints. I like ours in smaller jars, this year’s batch filled 18 of the 250 ml jam/jelly jars.

*please note that this has to sit overnight so takes about 24 hours to make.

Use nice, firm, green tomatoes. Do not use soft ones, or tomatoes that are starting to blush.

Here is what you need….

• 7 lbs green tomatoes, chopped very finely
• 5 medium sweet (green, red, yellow… any colour) peppers, cored, seeded, and finely chopped.
• 5 medium onions, peeled and finely chopped
• 1/4 cup of pickling salt
• 2 1/2 cups of cider vinegar
• 1 1/2 cups of sugar
• 1/4 cup of pickling spice in a cheesecloth bag
• 2 tsp dry English mustard

Chop the vegetables finely.

Combine chopped veggies and salt in a large bowl, mix, cover, and let sit overnight.

We use a variety of pepper colours to make the chowchow more colourful, if we have them on hand. Green for the bite, plus red, yellow, or orange for the visual appeal.

The next morning, strain the veggies in a colander. Press out the excess moisture. Set aside

Combine the rest of the ingredients in a pot, boil over a medium-high heat.

Simmer for 10 minutes and then add the veggies to the pot. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to medium to simmer for an additional 15 minutes. Stir often.

Remove veggies from heat and get rid of the spice bag.

Spoon mixture into hot, clean, and sterile jars, leaving 1/2 inch (1 cm) of air space to the rim.

Stick a knife into the relish to get rid of any air bubbles, or smoosh with a spoon.

Wipe the rims clean, and seal.

Process in a water bath for 15 minutes.

This recipe is truly wonderful, I hope that you will give it a try, may just become a staple in your pantry, too. This relish is such a great way to use up your green tomatoes. We make sure to gather enough green tomatoes annually, before they all ripen up, in order to make this chow chow.

This recipe is from the ‘well preserved’ cookbook by Mary Anne Dragan. The whole book is amazing, if you want to do a lot of canning from your home grown garden, invest in this book.

She also has a new one out for small batch preserving, which I totally want to get! I make a lot of small batch jams and pickles as the fruits ripen in the garden, but would love to make even more. These books are great investments.

Happy Canning ~ Tanja