I relish the thought: Grandma's Zucchini Relish

Every year, my maternal grandparents grew a vast garden filled with corn, cabbage, green beans, tomatoes, onions, bell peppers, cucumbers, watermelons, musk melon, butternut squash, and zucchini. It was a uniform garden, with not a weed in sight. It was colorful and a bit whimsical, featuring an array of irises and marigolds outlining the front. In the middle of the garden stood a trellis with climbing sweet pea flowers in pastel colors. In the back, guarding the bounty was a line-up of 10-foot sunflowers. My parents grew a garden that was also weed-free and uniform, but it was modest in comparison to my grandparents'.

Grandma canned and froze the majority of the bounty. She froze the corn, but canned the green beans, tomatoes, and even canned the butternut squash. Her secret to the holiday pumpkin pies was using the butternut squash. By the time she added the sugar and spices, no one was the wiser. She had fooled us for years. There were also jars of a wonderful, sweet rhubarb sauce, made with rhubarb cut fresh from the garden, that she poured over slices of cake or over ice cream. Sometimes she would make a pie. Oh, and there were the pretty jars of sour pie cherries that eventually became sweet cherry pies. 

In September, our family would go to Grandma's for an early dinner and spend the rest of the evening shredding cabbage to make kraut (I still have the original 5-gallon crock and old wooden grater). From the cucumbers, Grandma canned a variety of dill pickles using dill from her garden, as well as a sweet "bread and butter" pickle that seemed to make it to every family dinner and was consistently featured in a pretty Fenton hobnail glass footed candy dish. She found a purpose for the overpopulated zucchini by baking loaves of sweet zucchini bread for tea time and canned jars of a delicious sandwich relish featuring the monster zucchini.  

In my adult years, I would grow a small garden with just a few plants. I even ventured into home food processing by canning, freezing, and dehydrating. In the early summer, I would buy a lug of asparagus and pickled asparagus, canned jams and jellies, salsas (red and verde). When I would receive a gift of the undesirable monster zucchini that no one else wanted, I canned up jars of Grandma's recipe for zucchini relish. 

The zucchini relish became a summer staple, and it was added to every favorite sandwich that the family members made, from ham to tuna to the evening BBQ hamburger and hot dog. If I had any left by the winter holidays, it was a rare occurrence. (I just added a couple of tablespoons to macaroni salad. Delish!)

Grandma's Zucchini Relish

(It's time to get the Cuisinart out)

5-10 cups zucchini, semi-peeled, seeds scraped out, and shredded (I like to leave some of the peeling on for color)

2 medium yellow onions, minced fine 1 red bell pepper, seeded and minced                                                                                     

1 green bell pepper, seeded and minced                                                                                  

5-6 carrots, peeled and shredded                                                                                              

5 Tbsp salt

Add salt to the shredded vegetables and let them sit overnight in the refrigerator, or for at least eight hours. The following morning, drain the vegetable mixture, rinse it, and drain it well again. 

In a large pot, add:

2 1/4 cups white vinegar                                                                                                     

6 cups of white granulated sugar                                                                                         

1 Tbsp ground nutmeg

1 Tbsp dry mustard                                                                                                               

1 Tbsp ground turmeric                                                                                                         

2 tsp celery salt                                                                                                                     

1/2 tsp ground black pepper                                                                                                 

1 Tbsp corn starch (heaping)

Mix ingredients well and add rinsed and drained vegetables. Bring to a gentle boil and simmer for at least 30 minutes, or until the desired texture is achieved. Keep the relish hot and place it into sterilized jars with caps and seals. Then follow your preferred water bath canning procedure or refrigerator pickle "canning." 

Use on your favorite sandwich, in potato salad, macaroni salad, and add it to your favorite dips and dressings.