Zucchini Relish and one dead chicken!

Yes, it's true. We finally lost one of our Freedom Rangers. Not sure what happened to him, if he got trampled or what but I found him dead this morning for no apparent outward reason...other than looking as if he may have gotten trampled that is. Oh well, we are now at 25. The 26th was just an extra anyway.

Picked all these wonderful small tidbits from the garden for supper tonight. Yum!


I made the first season's batch of Betty Darling's famous zucchini relish today. Anyone who ever eats it on a hotdog is spoiled for other relishes for good! One of our main concerns when our mom was ill was that she would die without teaching any of us how to make it! (My mom laughed right along with us about it), but I did finally get her to put the recipe down on paper. For anyone interested, here it is.

 Zucchini Relish

Grind enough zucchini to make
   3 qt's (about 3-4 large zucchini)
1 sweet pepper (any color), ground
1 1/2 cups onion, ground

Place this all in a large bowl of ice water and let stand until ready.

Combine and heat:
5 cups sugar
3 1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. turmeric
2 tsp. celery seed
2 tsp. prepared yellow mustard
3 cups white vinegar
1 cup water

Bring to a boil and boil 5 minutes.

Lightly drain the squash mixture, add it to the liquid, and bring to a boil again.

Pack in hot jars. Water bath for 10 minutes.

Makes about 9 pints (If it makes a lot more than this there may be just way too much liquid and you might want to drain a bit off.)