Jaci Dawn

I figure if God still dropped “manna” from Heaven, it would be in the form of zucchini. For one thing, you can make so many meals and desserts and other fun things (like boats) out of zucchini. One plant can feed a neighborhood.

The down-side to zucchini is that pretty soon your neighbors won’t take any more and you can’t keep up with the prodigious amount of fruit that grows on the vine. Instead of zucchini boats, you’re carving out a zucchini ark large enough to house a pair of each animal and seven of the  kosher ones.

We plant zucchini once every couple of years. And every time we plant it, I remind Don that he should only put one seed into the ground. And every year, he plants three seeds in a hill and we are over-run with giant green squash. One day they’re little bitty cucumber-sized treats and the next day… They’re the frame for that gol-durn ark.

And God is chuckling away because zucchinis are the rabbit equivalent of the vegetable world.

All jokes aside, what do you do with zucchini? Two words: Zucchini Relish. Yumm, yumm, yumm. In one season, I am able to can enough Z-Relish to last us two years and afford us jars to give away to friends who crave it. It’s a sweet relish unlike any cucumber or pickle relish. It goes great on any cheese-and-meat sandwich (or just a cheese sandwich), hamburgers, bratwursts (if you are like me and you don’t like sauerkraut), and it makes hot dogs edible. A sandwich without zucchini relish isn’t really a sandwich.

You will not catch me posting very many recipes. I’m not much of a cook and my baking days are few and far between. I have friends who are wizards in the kitchen and I leave the culinary arts to them. But tonight I am going to share zucchini relish with you.

You start with several overgrown zucchini which you must pare and trim the seeds out of. It can take anywhere from three huge zukes to five medium ones. That’s just an FYI.

You need:

10 Cups ground (grated) zucchini

2 red bell peppers, ground

2 green bell peppers, ground

4 cups onion, ground

5 Tablespoons pickling salt.

Combine all of that in a large bowl and sprinkle the pickling salt over it. Let it stand overnight in the refrigerator.

The next day, rinse in cold water and drain the zucchini/pepper mixture. I usually squeeze it through a clean cotton dish towel or old sheet.

Add it to a large pot.

Mix together in a large bowl:

4.5 Cups sugar

1 tsp turmeric

1 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp celery seed

1/2 tsp black pepper

1 tablespoon cornstarch

Mix that in with the vegetables and 2 and a half cups apple cider vinegar.

Cook gently for 20-30 minutes.

Pour into hot jars and seal immediately. Process in hot water bath 10 minutes.

Yields anywhere from 3 Qts to 4.5 qts.

The red coloring comes from the turmeric.

And it tastes oh-so-yummy but not as sweet as it smells.