When this time of year rolls around, I think of harvest and Thanksgiving. Since our garden didn't do as well as normal this year, I made a trip to the local farmer's market and bought enough cukes, tomatoes, and corn for a nice winter stash. My tip is this: When shopping at a farmer's market, ask if there are any specials. Most of the time they are posted, but I missed one. The market clerk showed me a halfbushel of oversized cucumbers. Too big for pickling but they were only $2.50! I took them of course. They made up nicely into dill and sweet relish. I just scooped out the seeds and used the rest. What a deal!
I also made dill and sweet spears and slices, ground tomatoes, salsa, pickled beets, rhubarb, corn relish, and bread and butter pickles. I processed over 100 jars and had to freeze some of the tomatoes. So here is another tip: Be sure to save all of your jars and rings. They can be kind of pricey buying new each year. You can also find them at garage sales but just be sure there are no chips along the rim. You MUST replace the lid each year though.
Another tip is to save all of those plastic butter, cool whip, cottage cheese, etc, containers. If you are like me, you save them and they soon become overwhelming so you throw them out. I have learned to put them in a large garbage bag that I keep in my basement. They are great for freezing you many veggies in. For instance, last year I made so many loaves of zucchini bread that when I met someone new, I would say, "Glad to meet you. Want some zucchini bread?" Then I started using these throw away containers. I shredded the zucchini and measured it out into one batch sizes and labeled and froze. I also did this with pumpkin.
Have a great week, everyone!
