A few weeks back The Deer Hunter put in a request for squash pickles. I had plenty of squash and zucchini on hand so I got right to work.
Squash and Zucchini Pickles
- 4 quarts sliced squash or zucchini or a mixture of both
- 2 quarts sliced onions
- 1/2 cup salt
- 5 cups sugar (may be reduced to 3 cups for less sweet pickle)
- 5 cups vinegar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons turmeric
- 1 teaspoon celery seed
- 2 teaspoons mustard seed
- 2 quarts ice
Mix squash, onions, and salt. Cover with ice and let sit for three hours.
Drain squash mixture and set aside.
Combine all other ingredients and heat just to boiling.
Add drained squash mixture and heat for about five minutes.
Ladle hot pickles and liquid into clean jars and seal.
Process in a water-bath canner for five minutes. After cooling make sure all jars have sealed before storing for future use.
This week we:
- froze about a gallon of blueberries
- canned our kraut
- made dill pickles
- dried about three gallons of small tomatoes (a friend had an abundance and shared)
- canned tomatoes
- harvested 2 and half bushels of apples from a friend’s trees (my plans are dried apples, applesauce, apple preserves, and apple jelly but it’ll take me a while to get it done)
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Is it possible to just can zucchini and not pickle it? If so, how and do you have a way to freeze zucchini?
Lisa-to can it you would need to pressure can it and I think it would just turn to mush. But I’ve never canned squash so I’m not sure if it would work or not 🙂 I shred zucchini and freeze it to use in soups and desserts like zucchini bread 🙂
Tipper,
I used to can jars of yellow squash pickles. I loved to cut the small yellow crookneck into thin slices..(best)…thin sliced onions as well. I used white vinegar due to it making the pickles prettier. I also added red and green pieces of bell pepper. Everyone raved over them hoping for more free jars of pickles..Nope, gave them the recipe instead..I am sure you have that same problem…Now then, I was always sharing my canned food up to a point…but some things take time to plant, grow, weed, harvest at right time, prepare jars, prepare produce plus other ingredients…sooooo…and if you ever go to a store where old timey canned food is sold…A pint of anything is more than five bucks a pint…LOL
Pretty squash…
I also pickled green beans…”Dilly Beans”…I used long straight beans, that grew that way and tender like Blue Lake variety. They are very straight and more round-like. In a pinch I might use Kentucky Wonders…although I didn’t think that they looked and tasted as pickled as Blue Lakes…My boys loved Pickled Squash and Dilly Beans especially more than just pickles. I had to keep an eye on my jars, they would carry them off to the woods when playing and consume whole pints of them..LOL
Great post today…
B. Ruth
I had to laugh at your sharing the recipe instead of more free jars of pickles. I too have the same problem with hands out for the freebies. I don’t mind sharing & it sure helps my self esteem to know they love my squash pickles. But enough is enough! Feels a bit like Henny Penny with her Wheat & Bread doesn’t It?! Hand out that recipe & they can make their own! 🙂 I made them for the first time in July of this year. Along with my squash, I used sweet onions and Sweet RED Banana Peppers for their color. Within a week I had 4 pint jars left out of 12 pints. I was saying Jeepers I wont have enough for ME to enjoy! lol I have made a second run since then so there should be plenty for the Holidays & My general Use. I think I’ll have some copies of my recipe handy for the nieces and nephews come Thanksgiving & Christmas! (WInk *)
That sounds a lot like my recipe. I usually add a little red pepper for color. I haven’t made them in a few years because I’m pretty much the only one who will eat them, but they’re delicious. Yours look pretty on that rail.
Tipper,
I made me a battered egg for Supper, like Me and Harold use to when we’d come in from Frog-Giggin when we were just little things. A few years before Dillard Hardin built his Trout Pond, that was A perfect place to go Frog-Gigging. We’d get a couple of broom handles, borrow a couple of Mama’s forks, tape the handles on real good. And a flashlite to see with, and we were set. No telling how many got away, but you couldn’t hear anything in that Bull Rush but Frogs Bellowing. We’d usually bring home about 4 or 5, clean em, put some of Mama’s greece in a Cast Iron Pan, salt em, and put a lid to hold them from Jumping. They was OK, but I was always afraid they’d start that Jumping around in my belly after I went to bed. What Young Boys Will Think of. …Ken
Tipper,
Those cans of squash and Zucchini look so nice on your banisters. Everything is Good, canned with Onions. I fix Soup with lots of strong onions, whole kernel corn, peas, and other things that Ingles had in that bag. And hamburger. I really like Homeade Soup. …Ken
I plan to start on apples this week. I will peel, slice and freeze them. We eat them in the winter for breakfast with a dusting of cinnamon. After my trip to the garden this morning I stopped to gather blackberries from my one thorn less bush. I have gathered at least four gallons from it this year and it is still loaded. While picking I noticed a smell that I didn’t identify right away. I stood up, took a deep breath and recognized it Three feet from me was my first ripe fig of the season. It was delicious.
Pickles are beautiful!
Mom dried just about everything she could get her hands on while I wasn’t paying attention. I can’t remember her or any relatives ever drying tomatoes. She never owned a dehydrator, so most of her dried fruits and vegetables were hung on thread to dry. Depending on the weather, fruit was placed on a bed sheet that was spread out on the smokehouse metal roof or the hood of a vehicle. She dried cushaw that tasted like candy to a bunch of hungry kids. I never intended to grow a truckload this year. Hopefully my older cousin will remember the directions for drying them.
The sweet cucumber pickle recipe I have been using calls for draining and rinsing after the salt and ice treatment. The rest of your recipe is the same except you only say to drain them. It’s my first time to make pickles and I hope I haven’t messed up. I would hate to open a jar and sit down with a fork and a salt shaker.
Wow you have sure been busy and it will all be great for your family especially this winter. I used to love dill pickles but my taste buds have changed and I now love bread and butter pickles or I should say sweet pickles. I may try your recipe as I have never had squash pickles. I usually dry peaches for fried peach pies. I just prefer them rather than the apples and probably because my Mother always made the fried peach pies. I have canned tomatoes but have never dried them so thanks for mentioning your dried tomatoes. I have an abundance of them and will get my dehydrator back to work.
I sure wish my Mother and Aunt was still here because it was fun to put up stuff with them. They were a light in the kitchen and it was fun to be working with them.
I’m not usually a pickle person except sometimes at night after sweating a lot I suddenly want pickles. It varies though between sweet and sour. Go figure.
I have been doing quite a bit of apple drying. One dehydrator full is one quart bag. Last night I dried the volume for my tenth bag. We do not need more than about one bag. We still have one from last year. So I am just being a hunter-gatherer and we give them away. They sure would make some good trail mix. Since I am trying to get ahead of the birds, bugs and deer I am picking them green and boy are they are sour. Need the sugar bowl close by if you don’t like sour apple.
We have been wishing our daughter lived close enough we could can together. She has never canned, I don’t think. But she would like it if her guys liked what she canned. Canning, like quilting, is a good family affair.
That’s a busy week, Tipper. I mean, three gallons of dried tomatoes! That will sure taste good in the dead of winter. Those squash pickles sure do look good too!
You are amazing!
Tipper–I’m curious how you dry what you call small tomatoes (if they are tommytoes). I dry a great many larger tomatoes in my dehydrator (maybe two bushels so far this year) but have found that the peeling on tommytoes is especially tough when you dry them. Or perhaps it’s the way I have used them afterwards–mainly in soups, stews, or Italian dishes.
Jim Casada
Jim-we’ve never dried tomatoes before! I have a post coming up later this week about drying tomatoes…and requesting tips and help from folks who have experience with drying tomatoes. So far we’ve been eating them out of hand like a snack and the skins haven’t been a problem, but after reading your comment I see they may be an issue in cooking. I hope you’ll share your knowledge on my tomato drying post this week!
Those sure are some pretty pickles in jars! You’ve been a busy bee this past week putting up bounty and I think you deserve some praise for your hard work! In all you do, your care shines through – be it a video, a blog, a share from your life, canning, cooking, folk inspiration, anything I guess. Tipper, have a great day and try not to work too hard. I just know you are a person who stays busy and rarely takes it easy. It’s the nature of some like myself. Cleaning, cooking, outdoor work, tending my cats or learning about a new recipe to try. Thanks for the zucchini pickle recipe too!!!It sounds straightforward and delicious!