Canning

I mentioned it before, but I can things from our garden as well as things I get good deals on locally.  Sometimes those deals are things like sweet corn from the local farmers who set up stands by their fields, sometimes it's things I buy in a local grocer that they have marked down for quick sale.  I don't even try to grow corn here because I know they do it well and I can buy it reasonably priced.

The most recent thing I've canned this week has been sweet zucchini relish.  I'd never made it before but I was told it is sweet enough that it's used on hot dogs for kids with great success.  I have kids who love hot dogs, so I'm in!

It's a great way to use up those big zucchini you missed in the garden.  Oops!

So I grated it up in the food processor.  Side note, I just bought one of these about two weeks ago.  Before I did all my grating by hand.  WHAT WAS I THINKING?  This is SO much easier.  I just bought a medium sized one, it holds eight cups, I think, and it works just fine.  Cost me less than $30.

OK, so shredded zucchini in a bowl with salt and shredded onions overnight in the fridge.

Let me tell you, this smelled DIVINE the next morning and I tried it and would have seriously eaten it as slaw just like it was.  Of course, I love onions, so keep that in mind.  It's for the kids, though, right?  So on we go. You drain it and squeeze/pat/squish/flatten the water out of it and add the rest of the ingredients, bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer for 30 minutes, stirring often.  After that you can it by using the water bath method for 15 minutes.

You get five to six jars of this.

We haven't opened a jar yet but my oldest tried a bit that was left after packing the jars and deemed it wonderful.

One thing I like about canning your own food is that you can try things like this.  You are not going to find sweet zucchini relish in your regular grocery store.  I also like that I know exactly what is in there and there are no added preservatives or things to make it set up a certain way or added colors and I know the zucchini was grown without pesticides because I grew them.