Friday - Food Madness

Since Friday can be a work optional day for us, we took the day to work on the farm as we'll be gone for the weekend at Blues By The Bay in Eureka.

After a start of what we call "boogaloo" (leftover rice, eggs, and whatever's on hand. In this case summer squash and onions from our garden) along with the rest of our Orleans-grown melon, we spent much of the day working in the garden. Before we began, I quartered and cooked the lug of Clendenen's Gravenstein apples, so they were cooling to be made into applesauce later. This project had been deferred a few days, so HAD to be done.

Along with the usual weeding, watering, & miscellaneous chores, there was much to harvest. Yet again, giant Zuchinni for the chickens (how do they get so big so FAST?), other summer squash, cukes, cole, peppers, greens & herbs. But today we also had a lot of tomatoes.

Realizing that if these lovely red-ripe babies sat all weekend while we were in town we would come home to a gazillion fruit flies, I decided to make them into a quick and easy salsa, the kind you use to dip tortilla chips in. We use the "Zesty Salsa" recipe from the Ball Blue Book.
If you want to learn to can, or want new canning recipes and don't have this book - this is THE book to have. Sort of like having the Joy of Cooking for general cooking. It is generally found in places where you get canning supplies, like hardware stores! Of course, they have it on Amazon.
I use a food/meat grinder for this type of salsa. It gives it a nice texture and is much faster than chopping by hand. I simply cut the ingredients into quarters as needed, and run them through.

That done, we had a late lunch of tuna salad made from local albacore I canned last year (Ball Blue Book again) using the mayonnaise we made the other day, onions, home canned sweet pickles (NOT Ball Blue Book - I'll add the recipe when I get home), etc. served with Brio bread and Clendenen's cider.


Finally time for the applesauce. We ran the cooled soft apples through the Victorio to remove the peels and seeds and make them into sauce. This can be done by pressing them through a sieve or Foley Food Mill, but the Victorio is really the tool for the job. It was one of those things advertised as "You CAN'T do without it!", which always aggravates me - but indeed, I can't.
By the time the applesauce was made, heated, and canned it was 9pm and I was bushed.
We a sort of dinner Boogaloo of rice, vegies, some leftover local burger from making hamburgers last night, Humboldt Creamery milk and Loleta cheese. Astoundingly it was quite good topped with the extra zesty salsa that did not make a full jar.

I can a lot. I have done it for years. You get a lot for what may seem daunting, but really is not so hard.
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Addendum: The Sweet Pickle Recipe.
This is worth every bit of what goes into it, chopped, these pickles are the secret ingredient in potato salad, tuna salad, and such. I only make them about once every 3 years. Some people can eat them whole, but they are much too sweet for us. It is a 4 day process!

SWEET GHERKINS
5 qts. baby cukes, 1 1/2 - 3 inches long
1/2 c. pure granulated salt
8 c. sugar (sorry, honey will not do)
6 c. white vinegar
3/4 tsp. Tumeric
2 tsp. celery seed
2 tsp. whole mixed pickling spice
8 1-inch pieces cinnamon stick
(1/2 tsp fennel seed - optional. I rarely have this on hand)
2 tsp. vanilla extract

1st Day: Wash cukes, scrub with vegie brush leaving stem ends on if desired. Drain and place in large container and cover with boiling water.
6 to 8 hours later drain. Cover with fresh boiling water.

2nd day: Drain, cover with fresh boiling water.
6 to 8 hours later drain, add salt, cover with fresh boiling water.

3rd day: Drain. Prick cukes in several places with a fork. This is impoortant or they will be rubbery instead of crisp! Make syrup of 3 cups each of the sugar & vinegar. Add the Tumeric, celery seed, pickling spice & cinnamon. Heat to boiling and pour over cukes (they will only be partially covered).
6 to 8 hours later drain syrup into pan, add 2 cups each sugar & vinegar and bring to boil. Pour over cukes.

4th day: Drain syrup into pan. add 2 cups sugar and 1 cup vinegar, bring to boil and pour over cukes.
6 to 8 hours later drain syrup into pan, add remaining 1 cup sugar and the vanilla extract. bring to boil.
Pack pickles into clean, hot pint jars and cover with boiling syrup to within 1 inch of top (this is called headroom). Wipe rime and secure the jar lids. Process for 5 minutes in a boiling water bath. Voila!