It's That Time Again...

Brynwood Needleworks - Saturday Canning

 

The local farmer's markets are back in full swing again, and Shelly's garden is yielding some whopper zucchini. She gave us some of her harvest, and we opted to can more of our favorite relish. (The recipe is in Marisa McClellan's book, Food In Jars.)

 

Brynwood Needleworks - Zucchini and Pepper Relish

 

The two large "zukes" weighed in at a whopping six pounds each! My job was to grate the veggies the recipe wanted grated (zucchini and onion), and Handsome chopped the red, yellow, and green bell peppers. My big Cuisinart™ food processor was a life saver for that task!

 

So, I cut and grated twelve pounds of zucchini, and then grated seven huge sweet onions, while Handsome chopped his way through twenty two peppers. The rest of the ingredients were added, as called for, into my big Kilner jam pot, and the relish was processed in batches.

 

Brynwood Needleworks - 26 Pints of Delicious

After about seven hours, Handsome and I took the last jars out of my electric Ball jar canner. We ended up with twenty six (26) pint jars filled with this deliciousness. 

 

In case you're wondering, we use this relish on all kinds of sausages (brats, Italian, hot dogs...) and hamburgers. Actually, it's so darn good that we even put some into a dish on snack trays. It's tasty on top of crackers and cheese!

 

Our ancient apple tree has been tossing fruit for about a week, too. Handsome and I sorted through all of them, and ended up with fifteen gallons of usable apples. Guess what we're doing today. I'll give you a hint...

(Applesauce)

After the dogs are fed...and I get a cup of morning coffee.

Sunday Funday...

Brynwood Needleworks - Sunday Canning

 

When I got up on Sunday morning, I knew that canning was on my agenda for the day. I got out my hardware, and Handsome helped me when I got to the "jarring" step. By the end of the day, I'd canned ten pints of Zucchini Pepper Relish (from one zucchini from Shelly!); one quart, plus 10 ounces of tomatoes (also from Shelly's garden); and six quarts of late season Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie Filling.

Brynwood Needleworks - Zucchini Pepper Relish In The Works

The first thing I did was shred the zucchini in my Cuisinart™ food processor, and then hand chop the peppers and onions. They went into my pot, along with the requisite amount of apple cider vinegar, and cooked down for about a half hour.

After straining off the apple cider vinegar used to cook down the mixture, I added mustard and celery seed, sugar, and more apple cider vinegar. After the entire mixture came back to a boil, I put it up in pint sized jars and gave it a fifteen minute water bath. While everything was processing, I cleaned up for Round 2.

 

Brynwood Needleworks - Beautiful Tomatoes and Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie Filling

I did the batch of tomatoes next. These beauties came from Shelly's garden and filled a nice-sized bowl. I thought I'd get two quarts, but came up short, so I put the balance into a ten ounce jar which worked just fine. I put the two jars into the water bath canner and set about preparing the pie filling.

Round Three began when I went out into the garden with Handsome and the pups, and pulled rhubarb. Handsome took the stalks from me and cut off the leaves. After we picked what we needed, we headed back to the house.

I cleaned and peeled the rhubarb, and then washed, cored, and sliced the strawberries. In my clean pot, I mixed ClearJel™ and sugar, added water, and brought the thick mixture to a boil. Once it boiled, I added lemon juice and mixed it well. I had to bring it back to a boil, and then I took it off the heat, and added the fruit.

All the jars were sterilized in my canner. (I have the awesome Ball™Electric Water Bath Canner that I bought on sale last season. I bought it HERE, but Amazon and other companies carry it, too.) I lined up all my jars, filled them, wiped the rims, added the lids and rings, and took them to the canner.

They processed perfectly (tomatoes, too), but, because my apple pie filling siphoned, I took some advice from a fellow canner, and left them in the water bath to cool down. I turned it off and just waited about twenty minutes. They came out without a single jar sputtering and siphoning!

When I took this photograph, the jars were still too hot to clean and label, so I'll do that today. I just let them sit, undisturbed, overnight. They'll be fine to label after coffee.

I still have six quarts of strawberries I bought on sale, so I'll turn those into jam later today. It will be nice to have them available for holiday gift giving, as we certainly don't eat everything I process!

Tag will be here tomorrow with some great news! He's looking forward to sharing it with you, so I won't spoil his surprise. You'll just have to grab your morning coffee or tea, and stop by to find out what he wants to crow about now. I'll be back on Wednesday with more porch photos for you. See you then!

Filling The Pantry...

Liljegren's Hickory Hill Farm Canning

 

Yesterday ended with an additional ten pints of Zucchini & Pepper Relish and six more pints of Salsa. Handsome and I are going to the Farmer's Market this morning, and who knows what goodness will come home with us? 

I hope you have a great weekend, friends!

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.

 

Back In The Saddle...

Pomegranate Jelly

I'm finally feeling fit again, so of course, I headed to the saddle kitchen. While I was lying around, I was reading my canning cookbooks and came across three recipes I had to make!

The first one I made is a fabulous pomegranate jelly that starts with pomegranate juice! There are only three ingredients...juice, sugar and Sure Jel™. This jelly is seriously delicious!

Yesterday's yield was nine 4 ounce jars and two 8 ounce jars. I know I'll be making more.

Tomato Jam

 

My second recipe is called "Amy's Tomato Jam" from Marisa McClellan's book Food In Jars. This recipe calls for sugar, freshly grated ginger, lime juice, cinnamon and cloves. It can be eaten as traditional jam, or as a condiment. This one took hours to cook down, but it's so wonderful! It was worth the effort. Five pounds of tomatoes yielded eight 4 ounce jars.

 

Yes, I mentioned three recipes, but only have two photographed. The third is being made today. I'm making Christmas Jam. I'll tell you all about that one tomorrow. Man, it's great to be feeling good again!