Relish the night

This is Jeff (at midnight);
I firmly believe that part of living simply is to find entertainment in sources that do not directly fund destructive forces or Mass Media. The pleasure of having fresh produce CANNOT be duplicated especially by the dorks who put High Fructose Corn Syrup in everything (check the honey at KFC).
Gardening is one of these entertainments. Of course Bi-Mart does get a bit of money from us (seed packets) but that is all. Our friends and people we want to be like, Randy and Sharon, have let us use a spot in their garden (read: good Christian communal attitude). The soil is great for just about anything that can grow in the Willamette valley. This year we did carrots, radishes, tomatoes, pumpkins, peppers, and cucumbers.
Our next simple entertainment idea was to pick and can some of this stuff. The Specific Carbohydrate Diet doesn't allow sugar (or factory produced sweeteners) and most canning recipes call for it. Odessa and I have scoured the internet for pickling recipes with out sugar. Didn't really find any, so we called the OSU extension office and found that honey is a good substitute, just cut the amount in half. We then created a recipe for our own relish.

Oh by the way, I have a five gallon bucket of pickle relish in the making (you should see the size of the burger!). It is now midnight and I am waiting for some cucumbers to finish soaking and some brine to boil. This is a bad idea. Between prepping for Sunday school, Family visiting, and Settlers of Catan I am working off of 3.5 hours of sleep. Someday try my relish, but wait until morning to make your own.

If any of you are Crohnies' or on the SCD or are just wanting better tasting pickle relish that is six hours from field to brine (not Corporate outsourced cukes) here is a recipe.

Cucumber pepper relish (O Kershner )(I added the parenthetical statements)
8c cucumbers chopped fine
2c onions chopped fine
4c peppers chopped fine (any type-we use Jalapeno, Ancho, Bell, Anahiem. Will try 1 Habanero later)
(use your food processor to chop fine, especially if doing a five gallon bucket. Or hire Chuck Norris)
1 Tbs tumeric
1/2 c salt (kosher)(usually canning, but you would need to adjust the amount, we only had kosher on hand)
4c cold water
1.5 c honey
4c vinegar (5% white wine is awesome)
2 Tbs Mustard seed
2 tsp celery seed
Put chopped cukes, peppers, onion in large bowl (or bucket). sprinkle with Tumeric.
Dissolve salt in water, pour over veggies. let stand 3-4 hours (take nap). Drain. Cover with fresh cold water, let stand .5-1 hour (power nap). Drain well.

Heat honey, vinegar, and spices to boiling. pour over veggies. Cover with cloth (I used red terry cloth, blue teeshirt should be fine). Let stand 12-18 hours (sleep, go to work, come home).
Simmer until vegies are lightly boiling. Can following standard canning wisdom and practices (ten minutes in water bath is what we do)




Maybe tomorrow..err later today.. we will post our spicy fridge pickle recipe But I have to go to bed now. Hopefully my dreams will not be about small green things.