Pickles and Relish

As the produce threatens to take over my counter and refrigerator yet again, I decided it was time to do some more preserving. I hate when my produce rots before I can get to it. I took the weekend off from canning because I needed a break from it, but Monday afternoon I was ready again.

The first on the list was the pile of cucumbers in the fridge. I used Pat's Zucchini Relish recipe that Granny posted with cucumbers instead of zucchini. I doubled the recipe. It still didn't do much to take down the number of cucumbers. But I was on to sauce. I made some tomato sauce and some tomato juice.

With some juice that I didn't can, I made a great discovery. My fresh tomato juice makes a much better Bloody Mary than the tomato juice from the store. I couldn't find the regular vodka (probably lost in the basement somewhere after the move) but citron vodka is a great twist to the regular one. I didn't drink this until the evening though, after I was done with the canning.

Then today I finished off the cucumbers by making a big batch of refrigerator pickles. Sadly later that day I went out and found I had yet more to pick. It is never ending in August. Especially with the weather being so good.

Those weren't the only refrigerator pickles either. I made some from the jalapenos I picked last week. Last year I found I liked using them from the pickle jar instead of from the freezer. So this year I'll pickle quite a few and only freeze a little. The Sweet Cherry Peppers have been ripening. I'm making sweet pickled peppers with them. I'll chop them and use them on sandwiches. Yum. They only come out in ones or twos from the garden so refrigerator pickles are the way to go for them.

Then the zucchini got grated for winter bread and soup. I still have some beans to cook up and some chard to blanch and freeze, but I cleaned out the fridge a bit at least. Until the next time I venture into the garden.