I did the cutting up, Herb did the grinding of the zucchini, onions and red peppers...I added a cup of salt, covered the huge pan with plastic and left it overnight...This morning, it gets "washed" drained, add the spices, sugar and vinegar, cook for 15 minutes, then fill the jars...The following photo is from 2011 but relish should look about the same...I like using all red peppers because it gives it such a nice color...Hugs To All...OWAV:)
Looking out our East window this morning, sun is up, geraniums are still blooming, it looks like an absolutely beautiful day...Last night I covered tomatoes, cucumbers and squash in the garden, hoping to keep them alive because all this coming week temperatures are in the high 70's/low 80's...Then I will glean the garden and let the frost have it...It will soon be time to harvest the potatoes and plant the garlic.
As I look at reports from relatives in Wyoming, they had sustained winds all night with snow and ice breaking branches and covering everything...Also weather close to us in Pendleton, they had smoke, wind and dust, closing roads...Not a good combination...That is why, today we are very lucky where we live.
I'm looking forward to a peaceful day...The Walla Walla tomatoes are all roasted and frozen...20# of Imnaha tomatoes will continue to ripen in the box and I will get out the Zucchini Relish recipe and see if we have enough squash, peppers, onions etc to make a batch...I'm thinking maybe a simple tomato, basil, cheese pizza will be good for dinner...I will probably add some sausage to keep Herb smiling...LOL
Just sat on the front porch in my jammies (brrrrrr) snapped some photos to share...Hugs To All...OWAV:)
Holidays meant nothing, when I was growing up...Cows still had to be milked, other animals fed, watered and generally taken care of...Crops either planted, watered or harvested...Christmas was our most celebrated holiday...A family vacation never happened...Occasionally a picnic on the 4th of July, close to home but like I said, "The cows had to be milked, twice a day, no matter what."..It wasn't a bad life we had a warm house, good food and an abundance of love...On any given day we never had to worry about what we would do.
Not sure where I was going with this except, working was a way of life with my parents and they instilled that in their children...All of us have had an easier life, none of us took up farming, so no cows to milk...We had jobs that came with built in Holidays, we traveled by car, bus, train and plane...Visited lots of different states and some foreign countries, but we all worked to put food on the table, improve our living conditions and keep some of the basic life skills alive...Such as baking, canning, sewing, and gardening.
Which brings me back to tomatoes, UGH...A new job was added to the mix, when Rusty found a way to send home the turkey meat that we were supposed to get last March over spring break, but COVID changed those plans...I was gaining on the tomatoes, until I got the final delivery from Imnaha, another 20 pounds of tomatoes arrived, just after the two big boxes of frozen turkey from Bend...So for the past week, I wake up every morning knowing exactly what I will be doing!..To be continued...Hugs to All...OWAV:)
More about roasting tomatoes, as I try to use local produce...If not Imnaha, then close by Walla Walla...I have both this year in abundance...I ordered from both places to be sure and you guessed it I have lots of tomatoes...Using all fresh ingredients is important to me, so most years I dice our garlic and use fresh basil if possible...This year powdered garlic saves me time and energy, as does dried basil...But stubborn as I am, on one pan I chopped fresh basil and decorated the tomatoes...Its very pretty, but when heated basil seems to loose its' flavor...AAH, now I know why recipes say to add basil at the very end of simmering spaghetti sauce!..About some things, I'm a slow learner, hmm, maybe more than some...One more box of WW tomatoes to do today and now a new box from Imnaha is waiting for me, they were delivered yesterday...I guess I better get dressed and moving...Hugs To All...OWAV:)
Labor Day weekend is the last "Hoorah," before fall begins in all its glory...Days are getting shorter, nights cooler, gardens slowing down and many locals are headed for one of our many campgrounds, for one last camping weekend...Some will get together with extended families, practice social distancing, while enjoying the fresh, clean air along a mountain stream, with a campfire close by...Be safe, be kind, ENJOY!
Herb and I will enjoy the solitude and quiet of Barton Heights, (our slice of heaven), listening to our little irrigation ditch, taking in our awesome view...I would love to have a campfire but by the time it cools off enough to do that we will be snug in bed, dreaming about the days we went camping in the great outdoors...We had our Days!!!
Tomatoes are waiting to be roasted, meals always need to be cooked, lawns and gardens still need to be watered and tended, so we have plenty to do, maybe that's why it is called "Labor Day."
While I took a couple of days off from writing a blog, I shopped for groceries, did some cleaning and baked the first fresh apple pie of the year...With the apple tree in our yard and a frozen crust, it didn't take long to have a pie in the oven...Reminds me of two years ago when Mona and Jerry visited at the peak of apple season and we had fresh apple pie several days in a row...Love those memories....Hugs To All...OWAV:)
It is breezy and cold this morning, but warming up to 80º and continuing upward for the rest of the week...I have cleaning to do inside and watering outside, so will take a break from roasting tomatoes...Hugs to All...OWAV:)
I used to think that there was something wrong with people who didn't like tomatoes...That just seemed weird to me, and I would ask, "How can you not like a tomato?" I look forward to tomato season every year but I now understand that some people are actually allergic to them and to others they cause major digestive problems...I feel bad for them.
I roasted the first two sheet pans of tomatoes yesterday, ate a couple right out of the oven, ate a few more on a slice of my latest pickle bread and slid the rest into ziplock sandwich bags to go in the freezer.
Ready for the oven.
I always put way too much filling on a toco shell & end up eating it with a fork!
