Sunday, July 25, 2010

Sweet Relish ~ Reviewed and Updated September 15, 2022




Family and friends are huge fans of this relish that I have been making and canning for over a dozen years now.  It has become the "secret ingredient" in my egg salad, chicken salad, tuna salad, and potato salad adding just the right amount of sweetness and flavor to these dishes.  

Making sweet relish is a great way to put to use an abundance of cucumbers, zucchini, and summer squash during the garden season.  Sometimes I mix all three vegetables together to make this relish.  Other times, I like to experiment with color, making an all-yellow relish using summer squash with flecks of red bell pepper in it, for example.  

Relish  Recipe:

10 Cups grated cucumber, zucchini, yellow squash, or a combination 
4 cups onions grated
 5 Tablespoons salt 
2 cups vinegar 
5.5 cups sugar 
1 tsp nutmeg 
1 tsp dry mustard
 1/2 tsp pepper 
2 tsp celery seed 
1 tsp cornstarch  or 1 Tablespoon Clear Jel (See Note)
1 green pepper grated 
1 red pepper grated 

 Mix the first three ingredients and let stand overnight. Next morning, drain and rinse with cold water. Using your hands, squeeze all the excess water possible from the grated vegetables. 

 Add remaining ingredients. Boil for 30 minutes, stirring often. Seal in hot jars. (I process for five minutes in a hot water canner.)

Note:  The original recipe calls for cornstarch which has always worked well for me.  Newer USDA canning guidelines do not advocate using cornstarch.  I continue to use cornstarch but have also substituted 1 Tablespoon of Clear Jel.  Clear Jel is currently approved for canning.  



Tuesday, July 06, 2010

The Conspiracy


It's a conspiracy and it all started with the pigs.

Before we got the pigs, our animals did not escape. The pigs were masters at escaping. When they began letting themselves out three and four times a day and coming to the house to meet us when we came outside, that was just a little more than I could take. I temporarily put them in "time out" in the stable.

When we finally found a way to contain the pigs (knock-on-wood), then the darn goats began to escape. I think they saw how much fun the pigs had been having and wanted in on the action. When they escaped four times in the same day, they went to time out in the stable. (I am currently working on a plan for a fence to contain them.)

(Note to self before proceeding with this story: Even though borrowed electric netting works perfectly for keeping goats in, once you buy several hundred dollars of your own electric netting and return what had been borrowed, the animals laugh and let themselves out of the fencing on a regular basis. Electric netting does not work to contain goats or pigs.)

Not sure if today's escape was the idea of the bovines or the geese but they evidently wanted to get in on the action.

I was straightening up the rugs and toys in the dog's room (yes, the dogs have their own room) when I heard a familiar sound. It really didn't register at first what it was. I have become so familiar to my little friend's constant chatter as they follow me around that I did not think it was unusual to hear them talking to me. But I was surprised when I looked up from where I was picking up dog toys off the floor and saw Splish and Splash calmly looking at me through the window. They were talking to me, to each other, and very intent on the conversation as they gazed through the windows.


I racked my brain trying to remember letting the geese out earlier but I just knew that I had not. I wondered how they had escaped. Then I suddenly remembered I had new share members coming today and I thought they might think me a little odd if they drove up and saw Canada geese staring and talking to me through the windows. I decided I better put Splish and Splash back in their pen for a while. I don't like for folks to think I am crazy the first time they meet me. I like for that realization to slowly take shape in their minds over time.

Splish and Splash followed me faithfully down to the pen and their casual "talking" suddenly became quite agitated and I could see why. Princess, the heifer, evidently is as smart as her mother, Maya, who learned early on how to open latches on gates. Tori and Princess had opened the gate to the pen, let themselves in and finished off the small amount of grain that I had put out for the geese.

After getting the heifers out of the pen, I allowed the geese to stay out the rest of the afternoon when they promised to stay in the barnyard and not follow me back to the house.

(Note to self: Imprinting is real.)

Monday, July 05, 2010

AnnaJoy Gorgeous






As promised here are the details on our newest little heifer.

Apple showed signs of calving Friday morning and I believed she would give birth within 24 hours but did not feel that the birth was imminent. I finished up the morning chores and went down to the farm to help out with the garden and produce. When I came back to the house early afternoon, Apple had put herself in the stable, had a long strand of blood tinged mucous, and was dripping colostrum from her teats. I knew it would not be long until she calved but having not eaten all day, decided I had enough time to grab a quick bite. I was so excited (and nervous) I could only swallow couple bites of potato salad. When I got back down to the stable, Apple was on the ground and pushing. The baby was 1/2 out and before I could turn my camera on, she was born. I ran over to her fearing that she was not breathing and brushed the afterbirth away from her face. She was fine and Momma Apple was up licking her. I was so afraid to look to find out if it was yet another bull calf so I first called Mike to tell him that the calf was on the ground. He asked me what sex it was and I told him to hold on while I looked. I remember closing me eyes as I lifted the calf's leg to see. I opened my eyes and began screaming with joy, "It's a heifer! It's a heifer! I got a girl!" A little later, I called Mike back and told him that I checked five times and it was still a girl and that it had not changed into a bull calf! Mike's dad came up the next day, winked, and told me that if I gave him $5 he would verify that it was a heifer calf.

This little girl will be registered with the American Jersey Cattle Association and Registry. Her dam is Avonlea Apple of Pine Creek. Her maternal grand-dam is Glenholme Just Waits AnnaLisa.

AnnaJoy was sired by means of AI and her sire is Rapid Bay Glasgow . Her paternal grand-dam is Vandenberg Amedeo Gorgeous.