Zucchini Relish

This year we were looking for a bit of a change in how to use up Zucchini, and a bit of googling hit upon this recipe for relish. A quick read and it sure sounded yummy - and now that it is in the jars I can verify that indeed it is! It is one of those recipes you have to prepare a day in advance since the veggies soak in brine overnight - somewhat counterintuitively so as to be able to get much of the water out of them. Of course, a fruit press like this one that my wife bought me for Christmas a few years ago helps in that goal too, but you can do it the old fashioned way by squeezing handfuls of the mixture.

For chopping the veggies I used a manual food processor with a crank handle on top. We hadn't used it in years mainly because it had gotten put away somewhere out of view, but when my wife was going to sell it at a yard sale in the spring I set it aside because I knew I'd use it again. It made fairly quick work of the veggies as long as I only about half filled it. The zucchini alone was literally about the size of my leg from the knee down! I did a double batch of this recipe.

• 5 cups finely chopped zucchini
• 3 cups finely chopped celery
• 3 cups finely chopped onion
• 1 finely chopped green or red bell pepper

Add chopped vegetables to:

• 6 cups water
• ¼ cup canning/pickling salt

My double batch fit perfectly in 2 very large tupperware containers. I did not have room in my fridges at the moment for it, so I bought a bag of ice and put it all into a camping cooler for 24 hours. When the 24 hours is up you have to drain the liquid and then squeeze as much water as possible out of the veggies. I saved my liquid at first and I have to say it sure was a fantastic shade of green and I bet was just swimming with healthy enzymes and vitamins. I drank a bit and while it was not too salty tasting, I knew it had a lot of salt in it. I find it a shame to waste this water and am open to suggestions on how I might use it. Maybe for brining meat I guess.

Now prepare the vinegar and sugar mixture. In a big pot on the stove, mix:

• 3 cups white vinegar (5% acidity)
• 5 cups sugar
• 2 tablespoons mustard seed
• 2 tablespoons celery seed
• 1 tablespoon turmeric

Bring that to the boil, and then add the drained vegetables and boil hard for 10 minutes, stirring regularly to prevent sugars from burning to the bottom of the pot.

For me it ended up being a little on the liquid side, so when it came time to can it up I used a slotted spoon to scoop the veggies out and into my jars. I first filled them to a little below the fill line with very little liquid, then I went back and filled them the rest of the way with liquid and gave them a good stir. The original recipes say you can do a boiling water bath with this recipe, but I pressure canned it since that is normally how I do everything.