Home Canned Sweet Pickle Relish

I get to experiment with home canning this year thanks to the large garden we have gotten to work at this year. The only other experience I have canning was some peach butter a few years back so I honestly don't know a lot about canning.  The first experience this year was some dill pickles. I canned these with the other lady working at the garden who knows all about canning. It was easy and we still had lots and lots of cucumbers so I decided to try to make some sweet pickle relish on my own. I ended up  making 2 batches and ended up with 8 pints sized jars.  Next up I have 20 lbs of pears waiting to ripen and be made into pear butter and pear honey, and some baby food too but I'm just going to freeze that.

I figured sweet pickle relish from the Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving would be a good recipe to try. First of all, I love sweet pickle relish and I use it. It's great on hot dogs, in potato salad, and in pasta salads. Second, the recipe was rather simple and didn't need a lot of ingredients.

Sweet Pickle Relish

• 1 quart chopped cucumbers
• 2 cups chopped onions
• 1 cup chopped sweet green pepper
• 1 cup chopped sweet red pepper
• 1/4 cup canning salt
• 3 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 tablespoon celery seed
• 1 tablespoon mustard seed
• 2 cups cider vinegar

Combine cucumbers, onions, and peppers in a large bowl, sprinkle with salt and cover with cold water. Let stand 2 hours. Drain, rinse and drain thoroughly. Combine sugar, spices and vinegar in a large pot. Bring to a boil. Add drained vegetables simmer 10 minutes. Pack hot relish into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch head space. Remove air bubbles. Adjust caps. Process 10 minutes (below 1,000 ft altitude*) in a boiling water canner.

*1,000-3,000 ft add 5 minutes

  3,000-6,000 ft add 10 minutes

  6,000-8,000 ft add 15 minutes

  8,000-10,00 ft add 20 minutes