For two days last week, I made zucchini relish. In a moment of stupidity, I decided that all the zucchini in the kitchen needed to be used up, and relish was how it was going to go. Turns out, there was about 45 squash to deal with. And I’d just told my dear helpful daughter to shred ALL of them.
She went to town on the kitchen aid shredder, and in no time, we were ready to start. And then I counted bowls. Unable to use metal bowls, mostly, I think, because the author of my recipe wanted to laugh at how that would turn out in my kitchen and my TEN batches of relish planned, I ignored my big stack of giant stainless steel bowls that are my go-to bowls these days, I got out glass cake pans, glass bowls, and any other item I could find big enough to hold a batch. The kicker? All of it had to be salted and refrigerated overnight. Ten containers of salted zucchini mixed with 25 chopped onions are not easy to find room for in any refrigerator. We learned to be creative. I don’t think the fridge will ever lose the onion smell.
The next day, I chopped 25 peppers. Fun times. Then, we cooked it down in the canners for lack of a big enough pan.
That, my friends, is my sanity, boiling away. 60 cups of sugar, among other things. Insanity.
All of that… for this. In the end, what was supposed to be 70 pints I strained and used less liquid to cramp it into less jars, fearful I’d never, ever use it all or find a place to store it. But, rest assured, we’ll be eating relish for a very, very long time.
And now… there’s more zucchini ripe, ready, and in my kitchen. I’m thinking bread.
Oh, my, what a challenge indeed. I don’t know how I missed this post. You really had a job. I have made corn relish and squash relish but never thought of using zucchini. I can’t imagine doing this much at one time or even in a whole summer. Hahaha!!