Though fall is beautiful and all, it’s always such a sad, sad day for a gardener when you get that first frost warning, and know that no matter how much produce is still “on the vine”, that it’s time to pull up the plants.

And that’s exactly what happened. It was time. Old Man Winter was knocking at the door a little early, and though my plants were LOADED, and even getting new vegetables and blooms!, it was time to pull them all up.

I ended up with an amazing 108 peppers!!! I couldn’t believe it! I knew I had a lot of them, but 108???

 

 

I had even MORE green tomatoes!!! 30 pounds? 40 pounds?? I have no idea, but let me just say, that I had two plastic grocery bags full of them that each weighed a small TON. Romas, Patio and Beefsteak!!

So what to do with, literally, a ***GADZILLION*** green tomatoes?? Well, here is an easy way to use up a whole bunch with little fuss at all, and just 3 ingredients!

So let’s get to it! We have a lot of batches to make! 😉

 

 

All that you basically need are just three simple ingredients, a food processor, and a pan. And of course, something to put your jam in! 😉

Just your cut-up tomatoes, sugar and a box of whatever flavor Jell-O you want, and you’ve got “Jello Jam”!! (*And no, I did not get confused and add flour into my jam! I keep my flour in my sugar jar, and my sugar in my flour jar because the lid screws on and keeps the spring ants out of it. 😉 ) Just in case you were wondering…. 😉

 

The first batch was chosen by my hubby, and he picked Cherry flavor from the basket of 7 boxes!

 

 

Place your tomatoes into the food processor and pulse until very finely chopped. Almost pureed, but not quite that far.

 

 

Measure out 2 1/2 cups and place them into a large saucepan. Vigorously stir in 2 cups of sugar.

 

 

Bring this mixture to a FULL rolling boil, and boil hard for 10 minutes. (Stir this every now and then to make sure nothing is sticking and to scrape the sugar from the sides of the pan.)

 

 

Skim off the icky green foam, then just stir in your Jell-O until dissolved and ladle into a freezer container, refrigerator container or jar, or canning jar!

 

 

You can store this in the fridge, freeze, or process and can! I’m just storing them in the fridge. Well, all but one! 😉 I made TWO batches of Cherry and gave one to the neighbors! 🙂

 

 

This turns out super sweet, thick, very chunky, and tastes just like jam!

 

 

*Just make sure that you grind them up enough that you have some juice or there won’t be enough liquid to dissolve the Jell-O and you’ll end up with a hard, grainy mess. That has actually happened to me before.

So if when you’re mixing in the Jell-O and it looks like it’s super grainy and not wanting to mix in and completely dissolve, just add some VERY HOT water, about a 1/4 cup, to help it along. 😀

I’ve also read, that you can add just a little lemon juice to this, too, to cut the sweetness just a bit.

This is so easy to make, and a great way to make jam that’s fun, and very frugal! You’ll never know that they are made from green tomatoes! And the flavors and colors turn out so pretty, that you could even give these jars as gifts!

So if you’re stuck with last-of-the-season green tomatoes, too,
this old, stand-by recipe is for you!

 

 

Yield: 1 pint (2 cups)

Green Tomato Jello Jams (Strawberry, Raspberry, Cherry, Black Cherry, Pineapple & Mango)

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 15 minutes

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Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups ground (very finely chopped almost pureed) green tomatoes, (use blender or food processor)
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 (3 oz.) box Jello-O
• (*I made 6 separate batches using Strawberry, Cherry, Raspberry, Black Cherry, Pineapple and Mango / recipe above is for one batch)

Instructions

In heavy bottomed saucepan, add tomatoes and sugar, stir vigorously to mix well and to get a little juice, then bring to a full rolling boil and boil for 10 minutes, stir several times especially at first.

Turn off heat and skim off any foam.

Stir in one small box of Jell-O until dissolved. Quickly ladle into prepared jars for canning or freezer containers.

Can, freeze, or refrigerate Store in refrigerator.

*Other Jell-O flavors that work well are Cranberry, Blackberry Fusion, Peach, Apricot, Orange, and Fruit Punch.