From the Garden: Of Pickles and ‘Chokes

While I was away last week Williamsburg experienced the first hard frost of the season, the temperature falling to20 degrees on Mr. Fahrenheit’s scale.

This weather is somewhat cooler than is normal at this time of year but not entirely unexpected for the vagaries of the weather are like the whims of a spoiled maiden, ever changing and ever a surprise.

In advance of this severe decline in temperature we have harvested the last of the tomatoes. During the summer months we are well supplied by red tomatoes intended for sauce but by the latter part of August the vines are exhausted, the foliage drooping and yellow.

It is at this time we trim the plants back and pull the yellow foliage from the limbs. We are rewarded with an autumnal growth that supplies the year’s allowance of green tomatoes for pickles and other niceties to which this most unusual fruit is adapted.

My apprentice has just delivered a basket to the Governor’s house. The contents of the basket, the cook informed her, were intended for a tomato marmalade.

We are now in the process of harvesting the Jerusalem Artichokes. This root of a native Sunflower is thought to have originated west of the great river — the Mississippi — named by the French explorer Robert de La Salle and was carried to the east in the normal intercourse between Indian nations.

Once attained it makes a handsome show, indeed, some would say too handsome a show. This was remarked upon by Sir J.D. Hooker who recorded the history of its introduction to England: “In the year 1617, Mr. John Goodyear, of Mapledurham, Hampshire, received two small roots of it from Mr. Franqueville, of London, which being planted, enabled him before 1621 ‘to store Hampshire.’”

The roots may be boiled, sliced thin for use in salads or made into a relish. A young lady of our acquaintance has recently experimented with burying the roots in hot ashes at the margin of the fire and roasting them until the skin is yet intact but the center has turned to the consistency of a mashed turnip that proved quite agreeable.

I asked my friend Frank Clark at Historic Foodways if he can suggest a marmalade and he offered this Savory Green Tomato Marmalade for your enjoyment:

A quart of green tomatoes

5 cloves of garlic

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 1/2 teaspoons black pepper

1 teaspoon ground cloves

1 tablespoon olive oil

Remove the stems from the tomatoes and boil them until soft, about 10 minutes. Mash them through a colander.

Sweat the garlic in olive oil and add the tomatoes, salt, pepper and cloves, and stew it gently for 20 minutes.