What I did on Labor Day

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Anything can be pickled. It seems to me that many things were pickled to make use of vegetables that might go to waste. The large cucumbers that we often feed to the cows and pigs could be made into sweet crunchy rings. We did not do these, because sugar was at a high price, according to Grandmother. It was not worth the extra expense to make them. At that time we did not make jellies, either. We did the blackberries and sweetened them as we made pies. Relishes did not require as much sugar and it did not take many jars to last. Relishes added to dishes we ate on a daily basis. Dried beans were less boring when a spoon full of pepper relish or homemade tomato ketchup was added.

Tabasco plant used to make
the small jars pictured

The tomatoes we planted this year came and went. I have not added small green tomato to the peppers pictured. The small green tomatoes take away some of the heat of the hottest peppers. Cherry tomatoes work really good to add to pickled peppers. We really did not even have enough of those to spare. We did not waste the effort when I was growing up to grow the little tomatoes. Grandmother would just use the smallest of the normal sized tomato or cut them into quarters. The yellow banana peppers are hot banana and sweet banana mixed. This is also a good way to cut back on the extreme heat some hot banana peppers have. Removing the seeds takes away some of the heat. Jalapenos’ many times are not hot at all when the seeds are removed.