What are you CANNING this summer?

It looks like home gardners use them to make canned relish.  I found this recipe on the web:


CUCUMBER RELISH (GRANDMAS RECIPE)

4 cups ground cucumbers
4 large onions, ground up
4 green peppers, ground up
1 or 2 red peppers, ground up
1 tbls. Salt
4 tsp celery seed
2 tsp. Turmeric
1/2 tsp. Pepper
4 cups vinegar
4 cups sugar

Combine veggies and salt and let stand for 2 hours. Drain well, add rest of ingredients and cook slowly for 1 hour. Pack hot into hot jars and process in boiling water bath 15 minutes for pints.

Makes 6 - 8 pints

I made a new-to-me recipe tonight.  I had some leftovers that weren't enough for a jar, so I let it set up in a Tupperware container and tried it and it is amazing!  It is a good use of too many ripe tomatoes at once - you don't need Romas - and will be even better around Thanksgiving and the holidays.  I think it will be great on turkey and ham sandwiches, or with cream cheese as an appetizer spread.

Spiced Tomato Jam
with powdered pectin

3 cups prepared tomatoes (prepare about 2¼ pounds tomatoes)
1½ teaspoons grated lemon rind
½ teaspoon ground allspice
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
¼ cup lemon juice
4½ cups sugar
1 box powdered pectin
Yield: About 5 half-pint jars

Please read Using Boiling Water Canners before beginning. If this is your first time canning, it is recommended that you read Principles of Home Canning.

Procedure:

To Prepare Tomatoes – Wash firm ripe tomatoes. Scald, peel, and chop tomatoes. Place chopped tomatoes in saucepan and heat slowly to simmering, stirring constantly to prevent sticking and burning. Cover and simmer 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Measure 3 cups of the cooked tomatoes into a large saucepan. Add lemon rind, allspice, cinnamon and cloves.

To Make Jam - Sterilize canning jars. Add lemon juice to the prepared tomatoes in the saucepan. Measure sugar and set aside. Stir powdered pectin into prepared tomatoes. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring constantly. At once, stir in sugar. Stir and bring to a full rolling boil that cannot be stirred down. Then boil hard for 1 minute, stirring constantly.

Remove from heat. Skim off foam. Pour hot jam into hot jars, leaving ¼ inch headspace. Wipe rims of jars with a dampened clean paper towel; adjust two-piece metal canning lids. Process in a Boiling Water Canner -  5 minutes for 1/2 pints or pints.


This document was adapted from "So Easy to Preserve", 5th ed. 2006. Bulletin 989, Cooperative Extension Service, The University of Georgia, Athens. Revised by Elizabeth L. Andress. Ph.D. and Judy A. Harrison, Ph.D., Extension Foods Specialists.


ETA: I just love the sound of that "ping" your jars make when you have taken your latest batch out of the canner and are now in the other room doing something else. 

Canned 3 quarts of Honey Spiced Peaches yesterday, before my mandoline accident. The peaches this year are so sweet!  I got a whole peck for $8.  Enough for those 3 quarts and still a dozen left for eating fresh.  

My tomato plants are giving their last push - I picked 6 cups of red cherry tomatoes and another 6 cups of yellow cherry tomatoes this morning!

I have tomato bacon marmalade cooking made with the reds right now. I won't can it, but freeze it, because of the meat.

Tomorrow I will make yellow tomato basil jam with the yellows that I will water bath can.

My younger son has been eating his way through an earlier batch of tomato herb marmalade with just a spoon, although I have had some with brie on bread and it is heavenly!

How are your summer gardens wrapping up?