'tis this time of the year...

Yes!, ...'tis that time of the year to find out what's been happening UNDERground since planting time!   Of all the "findings", this one was the most "affectionate"...

Below:  The hugger from one side...

...and from the other side.

The smaller carrot being "hugged" was just "in there", 

loose and independent.  Was the "hugging" to save the 

"hugged" from being thinned?  

P.S.  The "digger of the carrots" said there were ALSO some 

carrots that looked "too naughty" to be photographed!   

Below:  On the back left, there are quart jars of canned peach halves that came FRESH (directly delivered) from GEORGIA by one of my sister's sons.  In fact, when my husband and I came back from our vacation,  my sister had these canned up for me-- in addition to that, she made those 4 pints of peach jam for us.

In comparison to the "home canner" my mother was, and in comparison to some other "home canners" I know these days, I do NOT consider myself to be any kind of MARATHON CANNER.  But!, there comes a time when an abundant yield of produce must be shared with friends,  OR it comes down to "do THIS" with the extras, OR ... heaven forbid, let 'em go to waste.

Other than the peaches and the peach jam in the above photo, there are pickled beets, and a whole lot of carrots.  Three varieties of carrots... the carrots along the front/left grew in the garden as PURPLE-colored carrots.  But, the purple color went away as I lightly pared (scraped?) them.  Canned up, they look just a little different in the jar.

Sweet Pickle Relish

Photo by me, Doris

The camera's flash makes the relish look lighter than it really is.

The description for this recipe was "Best Sweet Pickle Relish Ever".   You can check out the original source for this recipe at:

http://canningandpreserving.net/pickle-relish-best-sweet-pickle-relish-ever/html

I tried it............ to the tune of making 18 of 1/2 pint jars.  With that amount, I'm hoping it IS good!

Ingredients needed:

15-20 large over-grown cucumbers (well, not so big that they're turning yellow, though)
4 large green peppers
3 large red peppers  (I used green ones in place of these, too, making it 7 green peppers.)
5 large onions

Grind the above four together.  I used the grating blade on my Cuisinart food processor for this, but some of the seeds do slip through with that (they can be picked out later, if desired).  Heat and boil 10 minutes in 3 quarts of water.  To start out with, this requires a large, large kettle-- I used the canning kettle that I use for the hot water baths, stirring often to make sure nothing was sticking on the bottom.  (It cooks 'down' quite a lot, making us wonder why we started with such a big kettle.)

After boiling for 10 minutes, drain well.  What to drain this in?  That's what I wondered, too.  I used a sort of jersey type material that I 'clothespinned' around the edge of my large pressure canning kettle.  With no small children in the working vicinity, I carefully ladled the hot boiling mixture into that, held it up in the air until most of the liquid was out; then I took the 'load' of hot stuff and set in into my dish drain pan over the sink-- that way, it could drip away until it was dripped out.  : )    In the meanwhile,............................

In another large kettle, combine these ingredients:

5 cups white vinegar
2 tablespoons salt (pickling salt, or uniodized salt works best)
4 cups sugar
3/4 teaspoon celery seed
3/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
4 teaspoons of mustard seed

Bring the above vinegar/sugar/spice mixture to a boil; add the drained mixture and return to boiling;  then turn heat way down, and cook all for 10 more minutes.

Fill sanitized canning jars and place hot lids/rings on them.  Process in a water bath canner or steam canner for 15 minutes (I processed these in my presssure cooker).

For the amount of ingredients I had, I ended up with 18 of 1/2 pint jars of relish (or, 9 pints).

Bread and Butter Pickles (Mustard Seed Trivia)

This morning, I asked Wayne if he'd help me slice cucumbers.  Sure!   That made this whole process go more quickly.

First Ingredients:

24 cucumbers, about 4-5" x 1", cut into 1/8" thick slices
6 med. size onions, thinly sliced
2 green bell peppers, diced
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 cup pickling salt

1.  In a large bowl, mix together the sliced cucumbers and onions, diced green bell pepers, minced garlic (from a jar) and salt.  Gently mix together well enough to disperse everything equally.  Allow to stand for about 3 hours.

2.  At 3 hours, start to prepare the pickling liquid as follows:

Combine the following ingredients in a large saucepan and bring to a boil (use a saucepan large enough to also hold the cucumber mixture once this liquid is ready/boiling):

Second Batch of Ingredients:

3 cups cider vinegar
5 cups white sugar
2 tablespoons whole mustard seed*
1 and 1/2 teaspoons celery seed
1/2 teaspoon whole cloves
1 tablespoon ground tumeric

3.  Immediately, once the liquid boils, remove from the heat while you quickly do the following:  Using a colander, drain the liquid from the cucumber mixture.  Rinse off excess salt by running cold water over cucumber mixture in the colander for about 10 seconds.  Let the rinse water also drain off.

4.  Stir this drained/rinsed cucumber mixture into the boiling vinegar mixture.  Remove from heat shortly before the combined mixtures return to a boil.  (We don't want to 'cook' the cucumbers and make them mushy.)

5.  Transfer all to sterile containers.  I mainly fill the jars with the 'solids' and then add enough juice to each jar to make things 'equal'-- I filled each jar to within 1" of the top.  Seal and chill in the refrigerator until serving.

6.  I ended up with about a cup more than 3 quart jars (depending on the size of the cucumbers you used, this could vary a little).

* I've always wondered about those MUSTARD SEEDS used in some recipes.  Are they only for flavor?  Are the good for us?  Are they.........?   When I did a Google search, I found they do have benefits-- you can check this out for yourself.  A mere 250,000+ websites popped up:  https://www.google.com/search?q=mustard+seeds+benefits&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7&rlz=1I7GWYA

P.S.  If you have questions about something I didn't make clear, post it in the comment section.

Freezing Corn (recipe from Paula)

1.  Heat a large kettle of water to boiling.  Drop corn in (do not crowd the kettle), and let it boil on the cob for 10 minutes (according to a book I have, with our elevation height we can do it for just 6-8 minutes.  When the time is up, quickly move the corn to a kettle of ice water to  stop the cooking process in a hurry.  (Let it in the ice water for the same amount of time you had it in the boiling water.)  Remove it, and...

2.  Slice/cut it off of cob.

Mix the following together:
5 quarts cut-off corn
1 quart water
1/2 cup sugar (or 1/4 cup)
5 teaspoons salt

Put 3 cups of this mix in each quart-sized freezer bag.

Cucumber Relish (from Gerry Buss)

If you don't know if you like this kind, cut this recipe down to make a small batch.

Grind up and boil together over medium heat until mixture boils up (watch so that it doesn't scorch on the bottom of the large kettle):

12 large green cucumbers
8 onions
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mix together:
2 and 1/2 cups vinegar
1 tablespoon salt
1 and 1/2 teaspoon dry mustard powder
1 teaspoon tumeric

Pour this over the boiled cuke/onion mixture.  Now, boil this combination over medium heat for about an hour-- some of the liquid will boil off.  Your kitchen will smell like a RELISH FACTORY! 

Cool the relish.

Bag it in small freezer bags and freeze until used.