February Canning: Organic Russian Beet Relish {giveaway}

Yum. This recipe came from the book Pickles and Relishes, full of recipes that hit on pretty much every season and include crock pickles, heat-processed pickles and refrigerator pickles. The fixings for this recipe include beets, cabbage, onion, celery, caraway, horseradish, sugar and vinegar, creating a memorable experience for my palate. I picked up the veggies for this batch from the University District Farmers Market in Seattle-- I love that we have year-round markets, and I especially love Nash's Organic Produce. This was a relatively quick project, less than three hours from start to finish and resulted in 7 full pints and 2 half-pints.

Unfortunately I was a little short on brine (especially after getting the bubbles out of the jars with a chopstick) and had to scoop some of the solids from the jars in order to get them covered effectively with the amount of brine I had on hand. I noticed the jars also lost some of the liquid when they processed in the water bath canner, though everything I've read says the vegetables resting above the brine may discolor but shouldn't be a problem for bacteria. What do you think?

I kept the relish remnants in the refrigerator and it has proved to be a tasty treat, both as a relish for sausage and rice and a condiment to a salad. If you are interested in trying this tasty concoction leave a comment below-- I plan to give away the two small jars, so depending on interest I will either do a drawing or just give it to the one or two people that might want it. Let's call it canning karma. Cheers!