Hi, Thanks for all the information on this site. I had a gust of wind blow over two big potted tomato plants yesterday (30 min before I was going to tie the support cages to an adjacent fence so this wouldnt happen!), and I gathered 5 lbs of beautiful hard green tomatoes that got jarred off the plants in the tumble.

What to do with all that gorgeous hard green fruit??? I thought about pickles, but settled on salsa...

The recipe is adjusted from another I found on the web, there are a lot of warnings that you have to be careful if you tweak salsa recipes, but this still falls within all the guidelines for proportions and safety.

The colors are amazing -- the light green tomatoes, the slighly dusty green jalepenos, and the confetti of dark green from the fresh chives. I just got 5 pints out of the canner bath, and they are gorgeous. This passed the taste test too!....light and fresh at first bite with some deeper heat that comes on slowly....

This made a nice thick salsa and kept texture. Perfect for a chip, cooking, or in awesome guacamole! Enjoy -- and thanks to the posters on this board for the inspiration.

Green Tomato Confetti Salsa

Yield 5 pints (plus half a cup for tasting!)

10 cups chopped green tomatoes (approx 5 lb)

2 Large Cans Jalepeno in Escabeche (approx 2-3 cups prepared)

4 Large chopped Onions (about 1 lb)

1 Cup finely chopped fresh Chives

1 Cup Bottled Lemon Juice + 1/4 cup White Vinegar

1 Tablespoon Salt

1/2- 1 teaspoon dried chipotle powder (or more to taste)

Optional - 2 teaspoons Sugar (I think it brings something out in the tomatoes, but purists may frown)

Chop tomatoes and onions. Stem, split, seed, and chop jalepenos (discard liquid and other vegetables in jalepeno can). Wash and dry chives and chop finely. Place all ingredients together, stir gently to a boil, then simmer for 10 minutes.

Use accepted procedures to pack salsa into pre sterilized jars (I added an extra squeeze of lemon juice as needed to even out the filled jars) Process in boiling water canner for 15 min.

Notes: I used a food processor, I processed 3/4 of each ingredient quantity to fairly medium/fine chop, and 1/4 in a batch left in larger (smaller than dice) chunks, to provide more interest in the finished salsa. I also added the larger pieces 5 minutes into the cooking time. Stir in the chives at the last minute before removing from heat.

Consider canning some half pints for gifts, I will be making this again at the end of the tomato season, and it will look (and taste) incredible as holiday gift with a nice label and red bow!

It's great when a minor garden disaster can turn into a culinary surprise!

Best to you all......Harried!