Relish

This year I only planted six zucchini plants.  That's about all we can handle if the plants produce well.  Any more than that and it becomes food for the chickens and sheep.  That's OK too as free food is free food.  But, I don't want to use up a lot of garden space for animal food.  When TSHTF then the garden will be changed up a bit but until then, I'm not going to purposefully use up the extra space for zucchini. 

My favorite way to eat them is to fry them in a little butter along with sliced onions, add beaten eggs and scramble them all together.  When it's done top with a bit of shredded cheddar cheese.  At dinner my favorite way is to slice them and cook them with summer savory, onions, and tomatoes. 

Today I picked about a dozen nice sized zukes.  Since it's dinner time and I don't feel like making eggs I'm going to cook them up with savory, onions, and last years tomatoes.  It's better if they are fresh but all I have are tomato flowers at the moment...no tomatoes. 

Oldest daughter has some bell peppers ready for picking.  How'd she get them so early?  She potted the plants and had them inside most of the winter as houseplants.  Once it started warming up they went back outside.  I'm going to swap her some bell peppers for some zukes.  Then I'm going to make relish.  It's an easy recipe that my oldest sister gave me almost 30 years ago.

Zucchini Relish
10 cups zucchini, chopped up really small
4 large onions, chopped up really small
2 bell peppers, chopped up really small
5 tablespoons salt
Combine these four ingredients and let stand for 24 hours in the refrigerator.  Then rinse well until the taste of the salt is gone.
Combine:
2 1/2 cups cider vinegar
3 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
2 teaspoons celery seed
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon cornstarch
Mix it all up and bring to a boil.  Then add the zucchini mixture.  Boil for 30 minutes.  Seal in hot jars.  Water bath if you choose but I don't.  With the vinegar and sugar combination I have never felt it necessary.  I've never had anyone tell me that it's great zucchini relish.  Everyone always assumes it's cucumber pickle relish.