Sweet Pickle Relish

This is an easy relish recipe from the Ball Blue Book of preserving. I used to make a relish that took a day to make. However, "The Italian" likes this recipe much better. I think it's because you leave the spices in the jar. The taste gets better over time.

Sweet Pickle Relish-  Ball Blue Book

1 qt. Chopped pickling cucumbers

2 cups chopped onions

1 cup chopped sweet green peppers

1 cup chopped sweet red peppers

¼ cup salt

3 ½ cups sugar

2 cups cider vinegar

1 tbsp. celery seed

1 tbsp. mustard seed

I add about 1 1/2 tsp. tumeric

Combine cucumbers, onions, green and red peppers in a large bowl; sprinkle with salt and cover with cold water. I also top with a little ice to keep the ingredients cold. Let stand 2 hours. Drain thoroughly; press our excess liquid. Combine sugar, vinegar and spices in large saucepan. Bring to boil. Add drained vegetables and simmer 10 minutes. Pack into hot jars, leaving ¼-inch headspace. Adjust caps. Process 10 minutes in boiling water bath. Yields: about 3-4 pints.

Enjoy!

 

Garden Happenings

The garden is really starting to produce.

 

We've been getting a lot of cucumbers

which means.....

pickles.....and

 

making "The Italian's" favorite

Sweet Pickle Relish

 

I've harvested a couple small heads of Red Acre Cabbage and....

 

this little tomato...a Dolly Parton!

Isn't it a beauty???

The tomatoes are starting.

I think the big tomato glut is about a week or two away

 

Our favorite slicing tomatoes, Cherokee Purples & Eva's Purple Ball are a regular.

  

I dug one hill of Yukon Gold Potatoes.

I couldn't believe the size of some of them!

 

We've had a half dozen Zucchini, including these two which were almost too big!

 

and the onions!!! Well, that's a post in itself!

 

So, how's your garden producing???

What's Going on in the Garden July 14, 2013

The harvests are starting to pick up and so is the preserving! This week I harvested almost 2 lbs. of peppers. They consisted of Hot Hungarian, Hot Banana, Jalapeno & Sweet Hungarian. All of them were promptly pickled and stored in the refrigerator, since we are totally out of pickled peppers from last year.

I pickle my peppers using 4 parts of white vinegar to 1 part of water, boil, cool and then add peppers and store in the refrigerator. I also occasionally add some garlic.

The first Zucchini and Cucumbers of the season.

There will probably be two more zucchinis ready today at the plots.

 

I've been pulling more onions and starting the curing process.

These are some storage onions.....

and these are some more Walla Walla onions

My largest onion has been 11 oz!!!

 

Some of the Walla Walla onions have been chopped and frozen. They do not store very long and chopped sweet onions will sure come in handy over the winter!

 

We also harvested some more Sungold tomatoes and the first of the very few Carrots we will have this year, another head of Cauliflower and the last of the Broccoli sprouts. The Broccoli plants have been pulled and a bunch of Cauliflower plants that did not form heads. Hopefully the fall cauliflower will do better. There's one more head over at the plots that may be ready today or tomorrow.

 

The big news is that there's a Cherokee Purple Tomato out there that is half ripe......maybe Monday or Tuesday it will be ready!!!!!!

 

Tomorrow, Daphne at Daphne's Dandelions, will be hosting Harvest Monday. Hop on over there to see what's happening in gardens around the globe!

   

Harvest Monday..............8/26/2012

Just when you think you have the fruit flies under control in the kitchen. You go to the plots to do a little harvesting and..........well

you get this......

and this.....

and this.....

and these....

and of course more Chinese Red Noodle Beans....

and a ton of tomatoes.....

and at the home garden I got these.

The tomato plants at the plots are still hanging in there. They don't look too good. But, I am picking every good tomato and semi-ripe one I can find. Not only are many of the plants diseased, there are also some issues with nibbling. I suspect tomato hornworms, although I have not seen any.

I realized today that my harvest spreadsheet was not calculating my year to date totals correctly. I fixed it and I have harvested a little more then I previously thought.

Total weighed harvests: 51.8 lbs.
Beans:
     Asparagus Red Seed - 5.95 oz
     Chinese Red Noodle - 23.5 oz.
Cuccumbers - 9.25 oz.
Eggplant:
     Black Beauty - 22.95 oz.
     Lunga Violetta Di Firenze - 22.1 oz.
Peppers:
     Hot & Spice - 8.05 oz.
     Sweet - 24.45
Tomatoes - 712.55 oz. 44.53 lbs

Hop on over to Daphne's Dandelions, our host of Harvest Monday to see what's going on in Veggie Gardens around the Globe!

Harvest Monday...................08/13/2012

I've been very busy this past week preserving the harvest. I didn't take a lot of pics again....but, here's a little of what came out of the garden. The tomato pics aren't very good. 

Speaking of tomatoes, disease has come to the community garden. Although my plants look much much better then most over there. I'm not sure how much I will get out of them. To date, I have only harvested about 150 lbs. of tomatoes. We need a minimum of 300 lbs to get close to we need for the year. I thought last year was a bad tomato year with 320 lbs.We shall see how things go this next week.

The Chinese Red Noodle beans are going to town!

Sophia has been helping me all weekend and made this cute picture of our harvest from Sunday evening. She has been such a big help....wait until you see Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard!! 

Total weighed harvest for the week:60.76 lbs.

Beans:

     Dean's Purple Pole - 37.25 oz

     Chinese Red Noodle - 27.4 oz

     Asparagus Red Seed - 4.75

Cucmbers-59.15 oz

Eggplant- 18.75 oz

Peppers- 16.9 oz

Tomatoes- 50.5 lbs

Hop on over to Daphne's Dandelions, our host of Harvest Monday to see what's going on in gardens around the globe!!!

Harvest Monday.....................08/06/2012

We finally had a good week of harvests!!! The tomatoes are starting to come in!! I also harvested eggplant, cabbage, beans, zucchini and some peppers. I am happy that the cucumbers have slowed down a bit since most of the pickles and relish have been made and canned.

I wasn't very good at taking pics of the harvests. But, here's an idea of what my kitchen has been looking like lately.

This is the kitchen island before I started canning and chopping.

I think I need more room!

Most of Sunday's tomato harvest.

We just love these Chinese Red Noodle Beans!

I hope you're having some great harvests too!!

Harvest Total: 92.375 lbs
Beans:
     Dean's Purple Pole Beans- 9.5 oz
     Chinese Red Noodle- 17.8 oz
Cabbage - Savoy- 4.5 lbs
Cucumbers - Muncher Burpless - 2.9 lbs
Eggplant -3.6 lbs 
Peppers:
     Hot & Spice - 2.9 lbs
     Sweet - 15.5 oz
Tomatoes - 69.3 lbs.
Zucchini - 6.5 lbs

Hop on over to Daphne's Dandelions, our host of Harvest Monday, to see what's going on in gardens around the globe!

Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard............08/02/2012

This past weekend I finished canning most of our pickles & relish for the year. I made another batch of Bread & Butter Pickles and a double batch of Sweet Pickle Relish for "The Italian". The only pickles that are left to make are some Dill Refrigerator Pickles.

Not the best pic...there was no room in the kitchen for a photo op!

I also chopped and froze the celery that I harvested last week. I was planning to make Eggplant Caponata. But due to a broken pair of eye glasses and lack of nice clothes to wear for work. I spent most of the day on Saturday running around. Ughh..

Tuesday I went to the plots after work and harvested 30 lbs. of tomatoes!! Yippee!!! They are finally coming in!

Since we now have tomatoes, I'm starting to make the Tomato Puree.

What's been going in or out of your Kitchen Cupboard lately????

Harvest Monday ........................07/30/2012

My Harvest Monday post is a little late in the day. It was a busy weekend preserving the harvest. The harvests are getting much better. But, I am still way behind last year, especially with the tomatoes. Hopefully the tomato glut will start this week.

This isn't everything that was harvested this week....but, it will give you an idea of what is coming out of the garden.

A few of my celery plants died and a few weren't looking too well. So, I harvested and froze the celery that wasn't all that happy. There are still about a dozen plants in the ground that are doing very well.

The eggplants are coming in and the peppers are starting.

Some nice pretty tomatoes.....and

some more pretty tomatoes.....and

more pretty tomatoes and also the first Chinese Red Noodle Beans. I think those beans are just gorgeous!

The zucchini are coming in at a steady pace

The first heads of cabbage this year. I was pleasantly surprised at the large head of Savoy Cabbage. There are still several heads that are doing well in the garden.

The cucumbers in the Home garden are producing like bunnies! The cucumbers at the plots are dying off. There have been plenty of cucs coming in to finish up our pickle needs for the year.

While I was doing the Can-Can on Sunday, Sophia found at least a dozen tomatoes and some more beautiful cucumbers in the Home Garden. We thought this guy was pretty cute!! After his photo op, he went straight into the sauce I was making since he was a bit over ripe.

Hop on over to Daphne's Dandelions, our host of Harvest Monday to see what's going on in gardens around the globe!

Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard.................07/26/2012

I've been trying to get some of the more time consuming canning projects done before the tomato glut starts. This past week I made one batch of Bread & Butter Pickles and one batch of Sweet Pickle Relish.

I use the recipe from the Ball Blue Book of Canning for the Bread & Butter Pickles. I use less onions then the recipe calls for and ended up with 4 pints. Since there was quite a bit of liquid left over, I'm going to add some additional cucumbers to the next batch. These pickles need to sit for awhile to acquire good flavor before you eat them. We still have one jar left from last year. So, we are in good shape.

I also use the Ball Blue Book recipe for Sweet Pickle Relish. Lat year I made two different relishes from the Ball Blue Book. "The Italian" likes the Sweet Pickle Relish the best.....and boy does he like his relish!! I do make one change to the recipe by adding some tumeric to it. The relish also needs to sit for a few weeks to obtain a good flavor.

Due to my work hours, I won't be commenting on your posts and comments until dinner time.

What's been going in or out of your Kitchen Cupboard lately????

Harvest Monday................07/23/2012

Although the harvests are getting better, I am still about 2 weeks behind last year with some of the crops. It's been a very strange year. Some crops were early and some crops seem to be taking forever. The tomatoes for instance have been loaded with fruit for some time now and I am only harvesting a few at a time. Now that we have been getting rain on a regular basis and the temps have dropped out of heat wave range, I'm sure they will start ripening much quicker.

Last Monday after I posted my Harvest Monday post, I pulled most of the spring carrots.

Monday's Carrot Harvest

Monday's Plot Harvest

We are loving these Red Seed Asparagus Beans!

Tuesday's Plot & Home Garden Harvest

Thursday's Plot & Home Garden Harvest

Friday's Home Garden Harvest

Saturday's Plot Harvest

Sunday's Plot Harvest

These are Purple Viking Potatoes

They are pretty cool looking aren't they? 

Look at this big Red Pontiac Potato

I went to the plots on Sunday to get some purple and red potatoes for roasted potatoes. We were having company for dinner and I thought it would look nice to have a variety of potatoes. I really wanted just a couple of smaller reds and I got this big MaMa and another one that was almost as big. I can't wait to dig those potatoes once the ground dries out a bit!

Sunday's Home Garden Harvest

We sure are enjoying the Sungold tomatoes. They are wonderful! 

Hop on over to Daphne's Dandelions, our host of Harvest Monday and see what's going on in gardens around the globe!