Chow Chow

Hands down, the best time to visit the farmers' market is early fall. Summer vegetables, still abundant and cheap, share cart space with soul-soothing autumn crops. And although fall doesn't last forever, you can capture the season by doing a little home canning, which is far easier than it sounds.

For a concoction that utilizes a mix of available fresh produce, try chow-chow, a mustard-spiked sweet-and-sour relish. The stars of these jars are stubborn green tomatoes, which, having refused to ripen to a ruby red, serve as the perfect crisp and tart foil for sweet bell peppers and cauliflower.

Widely considered a southern condiment, chow-chow is in fact eaten all over North America, including the Maritime provinces of Atlantic Canada, where it is the classic accompaniment for crispy salt cod and potato fish cakes. Though it smacks of Americana, one look at the exotic seasoning suggests that it is of Asian extraction; the dominant theory is that this relish was brought here by Chinese railroad laborers in the nineteenth century.

Chow-chow goes great with grilled and roasted meats, folded into tuna salad, or eaten alongside a grilled cheese sandwich. And, in the darkest hour of winter, when you pine for those Indian-summer days spent browsing the market, we recommend eating it straight from the jar.

"Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower."
-Albert Camus, French writer (1913-1960)