Last harvest

No knitting today. I woke up to a cool autumn breeze and the pitterpatter of rain, and I knew I had work ahead of me.Time to bring in the last of the green tomatoes before they rot.

Not as many as last year - this summer was much cooler - but still a respectable four cups. Last year I made salsa verde with the last harvest. This year, I thought I'd try something different.

Pickled with garlic and dill and a few pearl onions. I have no idea how they'll taste... but they do look pretty! I got six jars from the haul and according to the recipe, they should be ready to eat in three weeks.

Next up was the jalapenos. My plan was always to make some hot pepper jelly for someone on my Christmas list with them.

I didn't get as many peppers as I'd hoped, but I was quite proud of my modest harvest. That is until I stopped at the grocery store to pick up a few more - just to make sure I had enough...

Yeah - the store bought peppers are on the top... mine might be small - but they are mighty, I'm sure. Concentrated heat - or so I'm assuming.

This was my  first time making jelly, so I was a little nervous, but it's surprisingly simple.

You blend everything up with vinegar and sugar ( I left the seeds in, so this jelly should be smokin' hot) and bring it to a boil. (And not to a boil-over... like I did... nice sticky mess to clean up there...)

Then you strain it, and put the juice back on to boil. Add in your certo and food colouring (that's where it gets it's colour from - it's a very pale green if you don't - kinda looks like snot) and seal it in jars - it's as simple as that.

I went with purple for my colour... because why not??? I got 12 quarter-pint jars out of the batch. A nice little Christmas gift, if I do say so myself!

Dad had asked, that if I had any peppers left, could pickle some for him (He likes to slice them up and put them on sandwiches. As it turned out, my meager little pepper harvest was actually enough for the jelly (you only need 2/3 of a cup!) so I had all the store bought peppers and lots of jars.

These ones I did seed, and pickled them up with some garlic and yellow onions - got three little jars. And if he likes them, it's easy enough to pickle some more!