Sunday, October 17, 2010

Preserving Summer's Goodness

My cold cellar is filled with jars and jars of summer's goodness.
This year's garden was the best ever.
I am guessing that the garden boxes made all the difference.
Who knows.

The garden sure has kept me busy....
and has kept me out of the sewing room.
Yesterday marked the last day of food preservation,
and today I start to sew again!

Frost is right around the corner
and so is the demise of the garden.

I picked the last of the peppers,
hot and sweet.

I cleaned them...
removing stems and seeds
(took me about 3 hours).
This is truly a labor of love,
as I was crying, sneezing, coughing and nearly peeing myself 
from the hot pepper vapors!


Next I chopped the peppers finely...
still sneezing, crying, coughing.
I have learned that wearing latex gloves
keeps one from spreading this hotness onto 
other parts of the body that are even more unpleasant!


Into the kettle with vinegar, salt and sugar.
I use half the amount of sugar that I do vinegar,
and add anywhere from a tsp. to a tbsp. of salt.


Then I bring the mixture to a boil, 
pour into sterilized canning jars,
and process in a water bath.

Hot and sweet pepper relish...
Yummy!
We use it on everything...
it is our favorite condiment.


Next I sliced Asian pears and apples.
(I had to cover my red eyes from cleaning peppers.)


Placed the slices in a dehydrator....


Dried fruit slices make a nutritious and delicious snack!



And now, off to my sewing room...
so many projects to do...
so little time!







4 comments:

From Beyond My Kitchen Window said...

How lucky you are to have a garden. My yard is rather small so I buy my vegetables from local farms. Your peppers looked yummy. Enjoy the sewing!

Unknown said...

Oh do I hear you.. My garden is ready for it's winter nap.. pantry & freezer & Potato bin full. I gotta start on the sewing and Christmas is coming. ( after my last trip this week to the beach).. Got out the magazines & craft books... dusted off my sewing machine...
Cheryl

Anonymous said...

Hi..glad you'll be dusting off the sewing machines...You truly had very productive gardens this year..we've had frost several times in the last week..altho I guess they weren't "hard frosts"..Maybe you should wear a mask when you're dealing with peppers???

Unknown said...

You sure have been busy! Beautiful colors on that pepper relish and I bet it tastes as good as it looks!

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