Just wondered if anyone here does canning.

Yesterday I made slaw relish. It made almost 5 pints. The recipe said it would make 4 pints and I think
my head of cabbage was large so I got a bit more than 4 pints out of it. I put up the 4 pints and the
partial pint I put in the fridge to get cold. After it was cold, I ate it and man that stuff is so good! I'm
going to make a double batch in the very near future, as soon as I get to the grocery for more cabbage.

I have a recipe for 'Old-Fashioned Corn Relish' that I am also going to make very soon.

I like various relishes and the ones you make and can at home are so much better than store bought.

I used to many years ago with my mom. We move to the farm when I was 15 and that first year we canned 650 jars of everything. I have played with it a few times since, but nothing serious. My husband has tilled a huge garden and we have bought seeds, so unless I sell produce on the side of the road, lol, I'll have to can. We have bought jars and a canner, so summer and garden here we come. Valerie, I love slaw, would you be willing to share your recipe?

If you love slaw you are going to love this and it's so simple. I found the recipe online and since it seemed
easy and had good reviews I thought I'd give it a try. The recipe is made with vinegar but if you don't like
the vinegar cole slaw, you can drain it off and add mayo too it when ready to use. That's pretty good because
I like both.

First you take :

1 medium head of cabbage
1 large carrot
1 sweet (bell) pepper (red or green...I used some of both)
1 medium onion
1 teaspoon of salt

Grate all that. You can also make it from mixture that is already grated.

After you have that mixed up, you let it sit for about an hour and drain off any excess water.

Second part :

You want to bring to a boil on a saucepan :

1/4 cup of water
1 cup of vinegar
2 cups of sugar
1 teaspoon celery seed
1 teaspoon mustard seed

I can tell you, you could cut back on the sugar because it is very sweet.
It would be ok to use 1 and 1/2 cups of sugar instead of 2. I used 2 as the recipe stated but next time,
I think I am going to cut it back by a half cup. Also, I did not have any mustard seed on hand and therefore
did not include it. Probably not enough difference with it to notice as it was great without it.

It did not say what kind of vinegar to use, I used regular white distilled vinegar.

Third :

After it comes to a boil, pour it over the cabbage mixture and mix it up.
Put it in your jars (makes 2 quart jars or 4 pint jars)
Put the jars in the hot water bath for about 15 minutes (I left mine in there about 20 to 25 minutes).

It is better than any slaw you have ate in a restaurant! You can eat it as is, or as stated, you can drain
off the liquid and mix with mayo for a creamy slaw. And it does stay crunchy too so no worries about it
being wilted. This slaw relish is great with most anything. Eat it by itself or as a side dish or on foods.
It's so good that you almost can't stop eating it.

I'll see if I can find the original site where I found the recipe and paste that to you if I can find it.
It's pretty simple so I did not bother to print it out.

At 'AllRecipes' online, I found 'Old-Fashioned Corn Relish' recipe. So if you go over to that site, and type in
those words, you should pull up that recipe. It sounds really good and has all 5 star reviews. I plan on making
it this coming week.

That was kind of like me, I grew up in the north and when my family retired, they bought a farm in the south.
They would can loads of stuff.

In my early 20's, there was a wonderful blackberry patch on the property I lived at, at the time.
The blackberries were huge and I would pick loads of them. It was my first hand at canning anything
myself. I made blackberry jam and a lot of it.

I won't get a garden out this year but I hope to next year. There are farmers markets and roadside
veggie stands in the summer that sell fresh fruits and veggies. I'd like to can a lot of foods this year.
You could say, I am getting an early start with making the relish's.

Thank you so much for the recipe. I will definately try it. We had blackberry bushes too and that's where I got my first case of redbugs. My dad had told me to go wash. I washed my hands, but he had meant to take a shower. Then my husband got posion ivy and I wasn't allergic to it, but the red bugs sucked the poison ivy right in and I almost ended up in the ER. Since that episode, I am SOOO allergic to poison ivy. I still love blackberries tho.

I can remember getting eat up by mosquitos when I would pick the blackberries.
I guess they must draw a lot of bugs. It was a wild blackberry patch. I think many years ago
there had been a house there. It was just wild and you'd have to walk thru the brush to get
to it. Wonder I did not get snake bit. I think I did get some chiggers too. About all you can do
for chiggers is smother them. We use to take fingernail polish and put over our bites. It did the
trick.

You're welcome.

What I do now is stay away from anything that may have the little buggers on them, lol.

Kathy I had originally posted the vinegar and water amount incorrect in the recipe above.
Here is the exact recipe from the site.

Ingredients
1 medium head cabbage

1 large carrot

1 green pepper

1 small onion

1 tsp. salt

Syrup

1 cup vinegar

¼ cup water

2 cups sugar

1 tsp celery seeds

1 tsp mustard seeds

Directions
Shred together vegetables. Add the salt. Let stand 1 hour.

Drain water from vegetables. Boil syrup ingredients

together for 1 minute. Cool.

Add syrup to vegetables. Pack into quart jars and process

in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes, or put into freezer

containers and freeze. Leftovers may be frozen. This slaw

may be drained before use and mayonnaise added, or used as is.

04/19/08 used 6 bags coleslaw mix with carrots. Added one

large red bell pepper, diced, and one medium sweet onion,

diced. Tripled the syrup, but double may have been enough.

9 pints.

My mom does canning every year. She cans pizza sauce, spaghetti sauce, Japanese plum jelly, pepper jelly and the big one, TOMATOES! I believe she also cans jalapeno peppers and pickles. Its a hobby of hers that she has been doing since she was little. The best thing in canning is the freshness of the food. Everything she cans tastes very fresh and healthy when eaten.

What is pepper jelly?

I plan on doing a lot of canning this summer. I want to can tomatoes and corn and maybe pickles.
Plus, I'll probably be trying out more relish canning recipes.

Yes it's especially great when you can get fresh fruits and fresh veggies. It's got to be so much better
for you than buying canned process foods in the store.

I guess one of my favorite things to eat is fresh cream corn that has been canned. Man, I love that stuff.
Cook it in a large cast iron skillet with butter and pepper....yum yum!

valerie wrote: What is pepper jelly?

Its mildly spicy jelly with tiny pepper pieces in it. We like to spread it over cream cheese and eat it with round crackers. I'm not exactly sure how she makes it, but it is easy to make because it doesn't take her long.

Sounds good. There's probably some recipes online for it.

valerie wrote: Sounds good. There's probably some recipes online for it.

I think she has the recipe in a book. I'll ask her and see if I can scan it and post it here for you. Its really good and it goes well with so many dishes and foods. It works great as a dip for chips and crackers as well as bread spread for sandwiches, toast and a topping for just about anything.