A Productive Day...

Hickory Hill Farm Zucchini Pepper Relish

Friday turned into quite the productive day. The one zucchini Shelly gave me weighed four pounds before I took off the ends and removed the seeds! It was huge! As we don't have a basement freezer yet, I wanted to find something to make that didn't have to be frozen.

I decided on a recipe from Marisa McClellan's book, Food In Jars. It's called "Zucchini Pepper Relish", and I had all the ingredients. The main components are three pounds of grated zucchini, six pounds of chopped peppers (which I grew in our garden), and two grated sweet onions. Thanks to my Cuisinart™food processor, grating the zucchini and onion was a breeze. It was easy to chop the six cups of green and red peppers.

Hickory Hill Farm Zucchini Pepper Relish

I followed the rest of the recipe, and ended up canning a gorgeous batch of relish. I canned them into pint jars, and had enough left in the pot for the "cooks portion", so Handsome and I could try some at lunchtime. It was delicious!

Hickory Hill Farm Crab Apple Jelly

 

I also put up the last of the crab apples into jelly, too. I have Lavender Jelly and Grape Jam to put up yet, and then I'll be finished with the jams/jellies for this season. 

 

Shelly and I are going to the farmer's market this morning. Who knows what will come home with us?  I can see a fun weekend in my future.

 

The Best Of Times...

Stylized Farmhouse Monarch Butterfly

 

We had a perfect weekend. In fact, we had so much fun with our friends, Mike and Joann that we didn't take one, single photograph. We'll commit the wonderful times we spent together to memory instead.

Today, I'm going to put up the rest of the crab apples, turning them into tasty jelly. There are a lot, so this will be a busy day. The weather should be perfect for it, too, so if you're looking for me, I'll be in the kitchen!

Another Culinary Windfall...

Crab Apples For Jelly

   I now have two and a half five-gallon buckets, filled with crab apples!  

My aunt and uncle have a gorgeous tree that's been producing these little gems for years. They've faithfully raked, gathered and then tossed them..until we talked about it last growing season. I asked if I could have them to make jelly, and they generously said yes!

Crab apples typically ripen before the larger apple varieties, so it works out well for me. I picked up all they had gathered from the windfalls, and then the three of us shook the tree and picked up the rest on Wednesday. They've never sprayed the tree, so there are some imperfections (and a few bruises from their great fall), but I can work around all that. Bonus is that there are no chemicals on or in the fruit.

As of last night, I my first "no added pectin" juice from the first three pound batch. I'll be turning it into jelly later this morning. By the time I'm finished, I'll have plenty for the pantry, some to gift, and likely, some to sell in my online shop and to my Facebook friends. Three pounds of apples was a mere "drop in the bucket" of what I have to prepare. I'll keep track of how many jelly jars get filled.

 

First thing today, Handsome and I are running an errand about an hour south of the farm. We're looking at something special - perhaps for the farmhouse. If it comes back with us, you'll be nearly the first to know. It's definitely going to be a busy day!