Chow Chow like grandma made!

Chow Chow

The rain started here in Washington a few days ago. It has killed my tomato plants leaving me with a lot of green tomatoes. I decided to make an old time family recipe Chow Chow (green tomato relish). I remember early fall at grandmas house was filled with the smell of this relish cooking. I always associate the smell with my grandma. Grandma served it with everything but it was always best with a big bowl of pinto beans. You should really give this a try, it is so good.

Chow Chow- like grandma made

Ingredients

• 3 large onions (4 cups)
• 1 medium head of cabbage (4 cups)
• 10 green tomatoes (4 cups)
• 4 green bell peppers
• 2 sweet red bell peppers
• ½ cup salt
• 6 cups granulated sugar
• 2 T ground mustard
• 1 T celery seed
• 1 ½ tsp. turmeric
• 1 tsp. ground ginger
• 1 tsp. allspice
• 4 cups white vinegar
• 2 cups water

Instructions

1. Chop vegetables finely. Place chopped vegetables in porcelain glass container, non-reactive container; sprinkle with the salt; cover with a plate and weight the plate down with large cans, let stand a couple of hours or overnight.
2. Place vegetables in large colander and rinse very well under cold running water. (divide into smaller batches if necessary)
3. Drain thoroughly and place in large stockpot. Combine remaining ingredients and pour over chopped vegetables. Heat to boiling and then boil 4 minutes. Ladle into clean pint jars which have been sterilized in boiling water. Seal with sterilized lids according to manufacturers instructions. Process in boiling water bath for 10 minutes.
4. Makes approx. 8 pints

Pickled Beets

My friend Kathy grows a big organic garden every year and always brings me some of her vegetables. I also by fresh eggs from her and a organic turkey for thanksgiving. This year Kathy brought be a large bunch of fresh beets. I like pickled beets and decided to try my hand at making some. It was quite a learning experience. The smell of them cooking with the spices was amazing the entire house smelled good for hours after.

If you would like to try I promise you will not be disappointed. I got 5 pint jars.

Pickled Beets (water bath canner  30 minutes)
about 15 medium size beets
4 cups white vinegar( at least 5% acidity)
2 cups water
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves

Wash the beets, in a large pot boil the beets until just fork tender, about 20 min. Drain and place in ice water to stop cooking, when cooled peel the beets and slice or chunk them up whichever you prefer.

Wash and sanitize jars and lids, this can be done by placing jars and lids in boiling water, keeping them there until ready to use.

In a large nonreactive pot mix the vinegar, water, sugar, and spices add the beets, bring the mixture to a boil and cook for 5 min.

Pack the beets into hot jars and fill with the cooking liquid, leave a 1 inch head space. place on lids, tighten the rings and place in water-bath canner. Process for 30 minutes.

Gave one to my son before I got a picture. 

Sqaush

I planted a squash in my garden this year that I have never tried before. I saw a lot of flowers but no squash, then I am looking at something else and i see it a real nice squash about 6 inches across.

The bigger one I gave to my mom, with some baby carrots, cucumbers, and green tomatoes from the garden, she lives in an apartment in the city, no place to grow anything.
 I cooked the smaller ones sliced and sauteed in olive oil with some garlic. If anyone has any other thoughts on how to prepare these squash let me know.

The Garden

A few months ago after watching a weekends worth of documentary's on netflix about GMO's, our food supply, death of bees, and many other scary things I set out to try and grow some of my own food. Growing up we always had a garden, we preserved enough food every year to get through the winter. Food tasted different then, vegetables were yummy instead of flavorless. We did not buy canned vegetables, processed and packaged meals were not used, we did not even eat cold cereal very often at our house. My mom cooked, every day, good simple food. I decided to go back to this time and to find some of the satisfaction of growing my own food, without all the pesticides and chemicals in a hope to feel better.

I went for a trip to home depot, purchased two 4x4 raised garden kits, and a lot of bags of organic dirt. My son came and helped me put together the first garden and I did the second on my own. It took about 15 min total to do both of them. I then set to work on dividing the gardens in to square foot sections (check out square foot gardening). Then an amazing thing happened I found a way to relax, bonus. This was a very enjoyable thing to do after work. My hands in the dirt, watering, loving the plants. figuring out ways to grow more in a small space. I had not felt this kind of satisfaction in years, being forced to slow down and just enjoy life. So here a a couple of pictures of the garden.

I am growing 3 kinds of tomatoes, 3 kinds of peppers, lettuce, chard, green beans, cabbage, turnips, carrots, celery, cucumbers vertically on the string, and summer squash.