I’ve no objection to sharing the relish recipe, except that I don’t know it myself, and it’s apparently not in the family cookbook. I’ll ask Mom tomorrow.
Huh. I sometimes see spicy pickles in the supermarket, or at other places. I also don’t eat anything with capsaicin, so I avoid that stuff like the plague. But I know it exists, because once or twice I’ve gotten it by mistake and had to discard a plate of food that it contaminated.
You can buy spicy pickles, etc. but making your own clearly gives you much more control over flavour and heat than buying. I do usually buy, for convenience, but the quality is far less than custom making them in part since they do not use much spice (although Indian pickles are a notable exception). If buying, chutneys are often spicier and more flavourful than pickles but have different uses - spicy pickled limes and beef is a great combo.
My parents like having a garden and getting fresh peas, beets, carrots, beans, zucchini, strawberries, raspberries, cascade berries, etc. from the backyard.
The beans, beets and berries make too much, so they can and make jelly or jam. And then my dad goes to a friend’s house to pick blackberries and make more jelly/jam. And then they go pick grapes and he makes syrah jelly/jam. He makes more than 200 jars every year and they eat a lot, but most go as gifts, and are well appreciated.
And there’s the sauerkraut. This year’s yield was reduced, because it’s normally group work, and my dad doesn’t want people around. So there’s only 50 jars or so. If you’ve ever had home-made, you won’t want the stuff from the store. Same for pickles.
That said, I’ve also been told that I should savor the black velvet gooseberry jam, because he’s not picking those ever again. So there are limits.
I don’t have much of a garden, but I recently got a source for cheaper apples, so I’m thinking of making apple butter. I can’t buy apple butter here. It does not exist.
I used to make jam and jelly when I was living at my parents, but haven’t done it for a while. Fortunately the canning jars are the same ring size, so I can mix and match Ball jars with Quattro Stagioni lids.