SHIFTING ROOTS

home, garden, food, and prairie lifestyle

Red Hamburger Relish: The Perfect Topping for Hamburgers and Hotdogs

Did anyone else’s grandma make a red hamburger relish?  For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, red relish is sweet and tangy, made with tomatoes, cucumbers, celery & onions.

Despite owning all her recipe books, I could not find the recipe she used.

My initial google searches didn’t turn up many results.  However, once I searched hamburger relish things became more clear.

Red Hamburger relish is sweet sour and zesty! Tastes delicious on hamburgers and sausage, or any other meat. A delicious way to use your garden vegetables: cucumbers, tomatoes, zucchini, peppers, and onions. You'll come back to this easy canning recipe again and again!
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How to Can and Freeze Tomatoes when you have No Time

Every May I emerge from winter ready to conquer the world and plant an enormous garden, which may have included 27 tomato plants.  Every September I end up silently cursing my optimism.

I love canning and freezing tomatoes, but I find that tomato season in my zone 3 Saskatchewan garden always coincides with the busy back to school season in September–which means I’m short on time!

This year, I’ve come up with a better system to can and freeze tomatoes while still keeping my sanity. I’ve figured out how to make the tomato sauce and pasta sauce my family loves, all without marathon canning sessions.  Here’s how.

Preserving tomatoes by canning is great but time consuming. Learn how to use your slow cooker, oven, and freezer to same you time this harvest. Never waste your garden vegetables because you couldn't get to them! #gardening #tomatoes #vegetables #canning #freezing #preserving

Sort Tomatoes by Ripeness

For those of you who live in warmer climates where all your tomatoes are vine ripened, you can skip this tip.  Those of us in Saskatchewan and other USDA zone 2 or 3 areas have to pick most of our tomatoes green and ripen them indoors.

Related: Canning Guide for Beginners & Must Have Canning Supplies–and What Can Wait

Set out four (or more!) boxes and divide your tomatoes by colour and ripeness: green, yellow, orange, and red.  This way you will be able to grab the ripest box and save precious time that you could be canning. You also won’t miss any rotten tomatoes, meaning less wasted resources! 

Check your tomatoes every day or two and transfer any outliers to the correct box.

Cut your tomato processing time in half. Find out how!Click To Tweet

Cut and Prep Tomatoes Faster

I cut my tomatoes in large chunks and squeeze out the seeds.  You will not get every single seed out, so if you can’t stand any seeds in your tomato sauce, this is not the method for you.  For roma tomatoes, I cut off the top, make a small slit, squeeze out the seeds, and put them into my slow cooker whole.  Which brings me to my next point. . .

Related: Enjoy your tomatoes in Tomato Bacon Quiche or Red Relish.

Use a Slow Cooker or Instant Pot for Cooking Tomatoes Fast

I don’t know about you, but I don’t have time to sit around a stove for 3 hours ensuring my sauce doesn’t burn.  I also don’t have time to blanch and peel them.  I’m happy to deal with the odd bit of tomato skin in my sauce.

If I’m using the slow cooker, I cut up my tomatoes about 6 hours before I know I’ll have time to deal with them again.  Throw in other vegetables you want in your sauce such as onions, garlic, zucchini, carrots or squash and walk away.

Somewhere around hour 4-5 I come back and puree the sauce with a stick blender.  This ensures that my super picky small child will actually eat the sauce I make.

Let your slow cooker or oven do the heavy lifting. Process your tomatoes with less effort. Click To Tweet
Preserving tomatoes by canning is great but time consuming. Learn how to use your slow cooker, oven, and freezer to same you time this harvest. Never waste your garden vegetables because you couldn't get to them! #gardening #tomatoes #vegetables #canning #freezing #preserving

If you need everything done in an hour or two, then cooking your sauce in the Instant Pot is the way to go. Set your Instant Pot to the correct settings, blend when everything is cooked, and either freeze or can your sauce, whatever time allows.

Roast Tomatoes in the Oven

If a slow cooker isn’t your style, you can cut up all your veggies and roast them in the oven.  Roasting adds an extra sweet caramelized flavour that I’m a huge fan of.

Put all veggies in a large roasting pan and cook at 400 degrees for at least an hour, or until some of the tops turn a bit black.  Let cool, add spices, puree, and either can or freeze in containers.

Related: My Favourite Roasted Tomato Sauce

Can or Freeze and Done

We are short on freezer space here, so I try to can as many jars as I can.  However, I don’t always have the time or energy, so I put my sauce in smaller containers in the freezer and call it a day.  If you’re short on space, put your sauce in good quality freezer bags and freeze them flat for easier storage.

Grow the Best Tomatoes

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Zero Time?  Chop and Freeze Your Tomatoes to Can Later

Tomato season unfortunately seems to co-incide with back-to-school season, which in our house is a recipe for beautiful tomatoes going to waste.  If you find yourself with almost no time to deal, chop tomatoes in quarters or eights and freeze in plastic bags.  It’s not ideal, but you can always thaw frozen tomatoes and deal with them later.

While I haven’t tried this personally, I’ve heard that if you freeze tomatoes whole, the skins easily peel off when you thaw them.

Has trying to harvest, process, and eat your garden produce got you down?  Click here to download my free guide on what to do with the vegetables you harvest.

How do you process your tomatoes?  Any tips or tricks to add?  Let me know in the comments what your favourite method is.

Preserving tomatoes by canning is great but time consuming. Learn how to use your slow cooker, oven, and freezer to same you time this harvest. Never waste your garden vegetables because you couldn't get to them! #gardening #tomatoes #vegetables #canning #freezing #preserving

How to Clean Up Your Garden in the Fall When You Have No Time

The vegetables have been picked, the temperatures are cooling, and fall has arrived.  You know you should clean up your garden for the year, but lets be real–you’re feeling the time crunch with back to school, a busy work life, or just plain being sick of your garden.  While a proper garden clean up is ideal, I’m going to give you my guide to what you must do–and what you can skip, so that your garden is dealt with in record time.

No time do a fall garden clean up? Here's some good tips on which jobs you must do with your vegetables and perennial flowers, and which chores you can skip until Spring. #gardening #tips #beginners #fall #autumn #garden #vegetables #perennials #chores #tasks
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How To Cope When You Have Too Much Zucchini

Zucchinis are like rabbits-they multiply quickly, seemingly overnight.  That little plant that looked so innocent in spring now is producing five offspring a day that you have no idea what to do with.  Heaven help you if you planted more than one or two.

Every time I turn around, another zucchini has matured on my plants.  I was excited for the first 4 or 5, and loved serving them fried with cheese or in fritters.  10 zucchinis later and I’m desperate for something different.

Instead of putting it in bags and hanging it on my neighbours doors, I’ve come up with a couple of different ways to use up the surplus.

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Fall and Winter Gardening in Zone 3: What you can Realistically Expect

Do you scroll Pinterest and see all these wonderful posts about starting a fall garden?  I know I do, and I get so jealous of all my gardening friends in warmer climates.  Unfortunately, if you live in zone 3, you can not plant a garden in September and harvest it in the winter.  (Hello week of -40 sometime in January or February!!)

I wanted to write this post because if you don’t know anything about zone 3 and are just reading gardening magazines and blogs from warmer zones, you might get the impression that you can somehow grow vegetables and flowers year round.  And while it is possible to grow vegetables in the winter with a huge greenhouse, lights, and heaters, most home gardeners don’t have those kind of resources or the money to pay a hefty heating & electricity bill all winter.

But, there are a few things you can do that you might not have thought about.

Want to start a fall or winter garden in zone 3? I'll help you manage your expectations and give you tips on what you can do with annual and perennial flowers, seeds and seed saving, vegetables, and more. #gardening #fall #winter #beginners #tips #ideas #seeds #perennials #annuals #flowers #vegetables

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Welcome!

Hi, I’m Kristen and I help new gardeners learn to grow their own vegetables and beautify their yards. I also share recipes that use all that delicious garden produce. Grab a coffee (and your gardening gloves) and join me for gardening tips, simple recipes, and the occasional DIY, all from the lovely city of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

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