Radishrain

Here's a chile sauce recipe adapted from the Ball Book of Preserving, p. 53, which a relative used to make chile sauce for me.

4 quarts tomato
2 cups onion (2 medium onions)
2 cups sweet peppers
1 red hot pepper (we used two red Farmer's Jalapenos and an orange Aji Habanero)
1 cup sugar
3 tablespoons salt
3 tablespoons mixed pickling spices
1 tablespoon celery seed
1 tablespoon mustard seed (we used ground mustard)
2½ cups vinegar

Chop everything. Simmer for 45 minutes (add vinegar significantly later than the other things). Have spices in a tied bag in it while it simmers. 15 minutes in a water-bath canner.

I don't know how it's going to turn out, but it smelled a lot like those Asian chile sauces. My relative put cinnamon in it as one of the pickling spices.

recipe_
tomato_

A relative made lots of dill pickles with West India burr gherkins for me.

The ingredient list here is adapted from the Ball Blue Book of Preserving, p. 48.

* 8lbs 4–6" cucumbers, cut in long halves (my relative used West India burr gherkins cut into halves, and probably eyeballed the amount)
* ¾ cup sugar (my relative used either less or no sugar; I didn't want sugar, because they're dill pickles and I don't think they should be sugary; we could have just used the Hamburger Dills recipe instead, as it has no sugar, it seems)
* ½ cup canning salt (my relative used less salt, although I would have requested the full amount)
* 1 quart vinegar
* 1 quart water
* 3 tablespoons mixed pickling spices
* Green or dry dill (1 head per jar) (my relative used dill seeds)

Simmer the spices in a bag for 15 minutes. Process 15 minutes in a water-bath canner.

I don't know how these will taste, but I hope we'll enjoy them and that they'll taste good.

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burr_gherkin

This recipe is adapted from the Ball Blue Book of Preserving, p. 47. A relative used this recipe, potentially slightly modified, with West India burr gherkins instead of cucumbers.

Ingredients:
* 4lbs 4–6" cucumbers (¼" slices) (my relative used burr gherkins instead, eyeballing the amount)
* 2lbs onions, sliced thin (about eight small onions)
* ⅓ cup canning salt (my relative used less salt, apparently, but I would have followed the recipe there)
* 2 cups sugar (my relative used a single cup)
* 2 tablespoons mustard seed (my relative used ground mustard)
* 2 teaspoons turmeric
* 2 teaspoons celery seed
* 1 teaspoon ginger
* 1 teaspoon peppercorns
* 3 cups vinegar

Process 10-minutes in a boiling-water canner.

Anyway, I don't know how these are going to turn out, but they look really good. The mustard makes them nicely yellow.

recipe_
burr_gherkin

I'm attempting to freeze my harvest of epazote leaves, this year. I hope it still works! I'm grateful for the idea, which I hadn't considered until today or so.

Here's my harvest ready to go in the freezer:

A friend of mine gave me two Better Boy F1 tomatoes (I had never tried them before).

The fruits were unexpectedly firm, but after cutting them open, I didn't feel like I was eating firm tomatoes. Anyway, the taste was excellent. I can see why people like it so much. Lots of tomato flavor. There was some sweetness.

I'm saving the F2 seeds from each fruit separately. The first fruit was larger.

f1_hybrid_tomato
f2_hybrid_tomato

A friend of mine gave me some Juliet F1 tomatoes, some from her garden, and some which had been refrigerated (which a friend had given her).

Anyway, I tasted them and really liked them. They're quite sweet with nice flavor.

I saved F2 seeds from most of the fruits. Unfortunately, I put them all in the same bag, instead of separating my friends into another bag (she doesn't spray her plants, and the other person probably used sy thetic chemicals). In the end, they're still Juliet F2 tomato seeds. It's an acclimatization concern.

f1_hybrid_tomato
f2_hybrid_tomato

I harvested three Winter Queen watermelons, yesterday. I ate them and I'm saving seeds (they're ready to dry).

Anyway, the fruits were small (with each being a different size). The flesh color was a rich pink. The seeds were small and black as is typical for a winter watermelon (it's nice for eating and for seed-saving, too, since they're easy to eat and they take up little space). The taste was great. I quite liked it. I wouldn't call it one of my top favorites for flavor, but it's quite good. It had a nice level of sweetness. The flesh was dense. It was kind of salty, too (which must say more about our soil than the breed).

We had some larger winter watermelon fruits earlier in the season, which I didn't identify, which may or may not have belonged to this breed (but probably not). They were likely Wintermelon, King Winter, or an unlabeled kind.