Great zucchini recipe

I found this recipe while searching for something to do with all of the zucchini that I have been harvesting. It sounded pretty good since I like chili, and I really want to use as much of the zucchini as I can. We made it this evening (with the added garbanzo beans) and it was awesome! The next batch will have a little more spice, but this was good none-the-less!

Canning part 2

I canned some salsa, green beans, and more pickles this weekend. For the pickles, I used the same recipe as before. For the salsa, I used a recipe from the Ball website. I like salsa that is mostly vegetables. Basically, I won’t make any with a recipe that calls for sugar or anything extra other than spices. I found the bean recipe from a Costco magazine. It contains essentially the same thing as dill cucumber pickles with cayenne pepper added. I can’t wait to try these in a few weeks!

More canned goods

More canned goods

Gone for a week

I left town for a week and harvested this (plus four extremely large zucchini) when I returned. I think I am going to have to can salsa and pickles this weekend or else give some of it away.

Harvest 8/6/2010

Harvest 8/6/2010

Canned some stuff

I attempted to can some of the cucumbers and zucchini last weekend. I followed the instructions exactly, but am still leery. The top are still down, so that is a good sign. I guess we’ll see if I am still alive in a few weeks when I get to open one and give it a try. The blueberry jam was made from berries picked at a pick-your-own farm in Iowa City.

Grape Jelly and Dill Pickles

First attempt at canning.

Cucumbers and broccoli

Putting the cucumber plants behind (to the north of) the broccoli plants I think caused them to be a little delayed. The broccoli basically shaded the cucumbers until the broccoli plants were pulled out. Also, eight broccoli plants was probably too much, but I don’t know what a suitable early maturing replacement would be to get something out of the vacant spaces around the squash before they get too big.