CANNING, PART I

Now that I live out in the sticks, I thought I'd try my hand at canning (Jessie, over at Muthering Heights, just finished canning a bunch of strawberry jam; check it out). Based on our abundance of abnormally large zucchini, we are canning my grandmother's zucchini relish.

As a bit of background, Jesse the Great (my grandmother) is a farmer's wife. Almost every memory I have of her is in the kitchen, wearing a dress (Jesse the Great only wore pants on the few occasions that she went deer hunting), and cooking food that was either hunted by one of my relatives or grown by my grandfather (Irwin the Great). My other grandparents (GG Pop and GG Betty) are suburbanites like I am. Or used to be. Or still am, except in a different environment. But, I digress. Zucchini relish ...

It's a two-day process. Today, Grammy and I started by grinding up ten cups of zucchini (note the annoyed look on my face and the screaming cherub in the background; apparently, Bean had dropped one of her "kissing bears" on the floor and was physically and/or emotionally unable to retrieve it on her own).

And here is what ten cups of seeded and ground zucchini looks like:

Then, Grammy and I ground up four cups of onions. My eyes were watering so much that I could barely see!

Note Cakes in the background, "taking pictures" with a pair of swimming goggles.

We mixed the ground veggies with five tablespoons of salt, covered it, and stuck it in the fridge. Now, we wait 24 hours.

To be continued ...