We had to pull a bunch of tomatoes while they were still green, the frost hit us a little earlier than we expected so I have pounds and pounds of green ones. Fortunately we still have a hoop house with active tomato plants which will provide more red tomatoes for canning. I was in a quandary as to what to do with all my green tomatoes and we (Linde and I) scoured the web looking for something useful and tasty – eureka! Green tomato jam! Yep, you heard me right, jam made of green tomatoes.

One thing that drew me to this recipe is that it uses no pectin, it’s not that I have an aversion to pectin, however I prefer to make something with as few ingredients as possible. I did change the recipe to suit our family’s liking. The original recipe called for ginger and cinnamon, we prefer a more zippy jam using jalapeños and since we grew a ton of them we want to use them if possible. Considering we have so many green tomatoes, I may try the original recipe as well; if you would like a more cinnamon/ginger jam then go here to get the original recipe

Here’s my recipe for Green Tomato & Jalapeño Jam

4 lbs green tomatoes and 1-2 de-seeded jalapeño peppers roughly pureed in the food processor
2 lbs organic sugar
1 lemon, zest and meat chopped, seed and bitter pith discarded (or add an extra Tablespoon of lemon juice)
2 Tablespoons bottled lemon juice
1 vanilla bean rough chopped or 1 tsp vanilla paste

DIRECTIONS

Prepare jars and hot water bath canner.
Place the chopped vanilla bean and ¼ cup of the sugar in a spice grinder and grind until it’s powdery and place in a large pot. If you are using vanilla paste you can just put it in the pot, add all the remaining ingredients to the pot. Bring it to a boil being sure to stir often once it starts to thicken.
Cooking can take up to 1 hour. When jam reaches 215 degrees remove from heat and ladel it into sterilized jars. I used 1/2 pint sized jars but you can use larger ones if you want. Make sure to wipe the rims clean and place your warm lids on the jars tighten the rings on. Place in hot water bath covered by 1-2 inches of water and process for 10 minutes. Remove carefully and let sit undisturbed until fully cooled (6-8 hours) or overnight. Check lids to make sure they sealed well. Label and store in pantry for up to 1 year.

This jam was SO tasty with ham and even with the duck I cooked in the crock pot a couple of days ago. I plan on serving it at the holidays with cream cheese and smoked salmon on crackers!

I’d love to hear ideas you have for using green tomatoes and if you make the jam. Leave a comment!