Canning Potatoes and Corn Relish

6-30-12
The potato plants are drying out at different times; some are still green and some have been dry for a week or more.  This morning at 6:30 I went up into the garden and dug up 17 of the dry plants.  Believe me hunting in the dirt for potatoes is not easy work.  I think I only sliced through 3 potatoes with my shovel.  After an hour of digging the sun starting coming up over the tree line and I was getting tired so I stopped; covered in sweat.  There are still about 15 or so dry potato plants to dig up and I’ll be out there in the morning doing it all over again.
   
Once I finished with the potato digging I decided to make my corn relish before canning the potatoes.  This is a recipe I made up.

Southwest Style Corn Relish
Makes 2 pints

2 cups fresh corn
1 1/2 cups tomatoes, seeds removed and chopped
1/2 cup red bell pepper, chopped
1 1/2 cups onion, chopped
1 1/2 tsp canning salt
1/2 c. cider vinegar
3 Tbsp. cilantro
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. lime juice

Place all ingredients in an enamel or stainless steel pan. (A large stainless saucepan is big enough.)
Bring to a boil and let boil for 15 minutes.
While relish is boiling get your jars and boiling water bath ready.
Fill jars with hot relish and place on your lids and tighten the rings.
Place in boiling water bath. (Remember the boiling water should cover your jars by 1-inch.)  Leave in boiling water bath for 15 minutes.  Remove jars; sitting them in a draft free place.  Wait for the lid popping sound and you’re done.

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 After putting the relish away I canned 4 quarts of the potatoes I picked this morning.  The recipe and instructions I used came from my Kerr Canning Book.

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7-1-12
    Dug up more of the potato plants this morning; 18 today leaving 10 green plants up in the garden.  Dug up another wash tub full.  I canned another 4 quarts.  There were lots of little ones attached to the large potatoes and some small ones so I decided to put them away in pint jars for stew this winter.  I don’t know why I insist on putting myself through all this work.  I guess I just can’t throw good food away.
    To prepare the little ones I stood at the sink using my dish scrunchy and rubbed all skin off each one under running water.  I had to trim off each one.  Potatoes have a tendency to turn brown after they’ve been peeled for a while so I place them in a bowl of cool water with a squirt or two of lemon juice.  I always rinse them before I place them in the jars.  I do the same lemon water soak with my cut potatoes I placed in the quart jars.

It was a busy weekend and I could use a day off now. :O)  I will say I enjoyed myself.  I LOVE TO CAN.  Have I mentioned that?
The weekend was a hot as the week and the fields, woods,and creeks are drying up.  I heard they have banned fireworks in our county and the next one (Fort Smith,AR’s county).  Guess the 4th won’t be much of one unless we get a good soaking rain for a day.  We’ve deer on our property that graze in our field behind the garden and drink from a spring just down below the hill from our house.  We’ve seen generations of these same deer over the years and one doe has had several sets of twins.  Dad and I went out for supper this evening and on the way in we saw four of them by the spring.  They just stood there and looked at us as we drove by.  I saw the buck in the back field last Thursday.  It was the first time I’ve seen him in the open.
     Well enough about the pretty deer.  Hope everyone had a GREAT weekend and the same for the week to come.

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Corn Harvest and Tomato Shade

6-27-12
     The temps here have been in the 100s this week.  I’ve been watering the garden every evening hoping to keep it from burning up from the sun.  Today I discovered that the sweet banana pepper and bell pepper plants had scrubed to the heat.  The peppers on each plant had sun burn spots on them so I decided I’d gotten my share and decided not to water them anymore.
     I picked the corn today.  Sad harvest.  The ears had 1 worm each and some had ants and/or some kind of long thin black bug.  The bugs had eaten anywhere from a quarter to half of each ear.    I only picked 25 ears and out of that I was able to only put 6 away, in the deep freezer, for corn on the cob.                  I cut the rest of the corn off the cobs to make some Corn Relish.  I didn’t have any garlic so I waited till Sat. to make the relish. (Friday shopping)  A couple of years ago I made a Zucchini and Corn Relish that you could pour over your pan fried chicken breasts.  I wanted to make something similar, so I invented a recipe using ingredients I had on hand.  See the July 1 post for the recipe.

 6-28-12 
With the sun blaring down on my tomatoes I was concerned about them getting burned up.  I was thinking, during the day, about how I could shade them a little.  My Dad used to put 6 fence posts up, two on each end of the row of tomatoes and two in the middle.  When the days started to get too hot he would then lay a piece of rebarb, he had laying around, on top of the tomatoes. (Hog fencing would work also.)  He would use wire to tie the rebarb to the fence posts.  Once this was done he would take the old corn stalks and lay them on top to shade the tomatoes.  He always had beautiful bushy tomato plants that grew up through the rebarb and then they ended up shading themselves.
Anyway back to shading my tomatoes…Having the corn stalks in mind I decided that I would lean some of the corn stalks against the West side of my tomato plants.

Sharing Relish Recipes

Green Tomato Relish posted on last years Blog.  Find the recipe at
http://arkansasfarmerette.wordpress.com/2011/10/29/green-tomato-relish/

I love making relishes and green tomato pickles.  Here’s a few tips I’ve learned along the way.
1. When the recipe calls for “sprinkling the vegetables with salt, let sit overnight,and drain & squeeze out the water”;  just put them in a large colander or colanders over a pan(s).  Let drain this way and you won’t have any squeezing to do the next day.
2.  I used to tie my spices in an old tea towel, but I lucked upon a large mesh tea ball at a Whole Foods store.  If you can’t find one, cheese cloth works well.  

I am a cookbook collector, of sorts.  I recently picked up some recipe pamphlets at a local resale shop. 
I thought I would share some of the recipes in them with all of you just to whet your appetite for canning.
The following recipes are from Circular 458 (REV) Pickles and Relishes, Agricultural Extension Service, University of Arkansas, May 1962

Pepper Relish
1 pt. sweet red peppers, chopped
1 pt. sweet green peppers, chopped
1 pt. onions, chopped
1 pt. vinegar
1 Tbsp. canning salt
1 c. sugar
2 tsp. crushed celery seed
2 tsp. mustard seed
(If desired the green peppers can be omitted and 1 qt. of red peppers used.)
Cover onions and pepper with water.  Bring the water to a boil, then remove from the heat.  Let onions and peppers stand in the water 10 minutes before draining.  Mix sugar, vinegar, and spices.  Bring to a boil, then add onions and peppers.  Cook slowly for 15 minutes.  Then pack in hot jars, seal and store.

Piccalilli
2 qts green tomatoes, chopped
3 c. green sweet peppers, chopped
1 c. cucumbers, chopped
1/2 c. onions, chopped
1 qt. vinegar
1 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. canning salt
2 Tbsp. pickling spice (tied in a cloth)

Combine the chopped vegetables and mix with the salt.  Let this mixture stand overnight.  Next morning, drain and press out all the liquid possible.  Mix sugar, vinegar, and spices (tied in a cloth).
Bring to a boil, then add the vegetables.  Simmer slowly about 30 minutes, or until thick.  Pack into hot jars, seal and store.

Corn Relish
2 qts. cut corm (12 to 15 ears)
1 at. chopped cabbage
1 c. green sweet pepper, chopped
1 c. red sweet pepper, chopped
1 c. onions, chopped
1 c. sugar
1 qt. vinegar
2 Tbsp. ground dry mustard
1 Tbsp. celery seed
1 Tbsp. canning salt

Boil the ears of corn in water for 3 minutes to “set the milk.”  Then cool them and cut the corn from the cob.  Mix pepper, onion, and cabbage with the corn.  Add vinegar, sugar, and spices to the mixture.
Cook about 20 minutes, or until tender.  Pack into hot jars, seal and store.

Chow Chow
1 qt. cabbage,, chopped
1 qt. cucumbers, chopped
1 qt. green tomatoes, chopped
1/2 c. green peppers, chopped
1 1/2 qts. vinegar
1 1/2 c. sugar
1 Tbsp. celery seed
1 Tbsp. mustard seed
1 Tbsp. allspice
1/2 c. canning salt

Mix vegetables and salt, then let stand overnight. Next morning drain and press out all liquid.  Combine vinegar, sugar, and spices.  Simmer 10 minutes.  Add vegetables and cook until hot and well seasoned.  Pack into hot jars, seal and store.

Chili Sauce
   For a good red color in this product, observe these four points:
1. Use ripe red tomatoes.
2. Cook rapidly in a large open pan.
3. Use whole spices instead of powdered ones.
4. Add sugar and vinegar near the end of the cooking time.
Ingredients
1 gallon chopped ripe tomatoes, peeled
2 c. chopped onion
2 c. chopped sweet red peppers
3 Tbsp. canning salt
1 c. brown sugar
3 c. vinegar
1 red hot pepper (if desired)
1 tsp. whole cloves
1 tsp. allspice
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 med. clove (section) of garlic

Combine chopped vegetables.  Tie spices in a bag and add to vegetables.  Cook vegetables rapidly, stirring often to keep from sticking.  When the vegetables have cooked down to about half the amount you started with, add the sugar, vinegar, and salt.  Boil rapidly for 5 minutes, stirring constantly.  Pour into hot jars, seal, and store.
NOTE: The vinegar, sugar and salt can be heated separately and added while hot to the vegetables.  In this way, the mixture is not cooled down too much.