What Did You Do In The Garden?

[flowerbug]

picked many bean pods until we got rained on, took a break, went out again after the sun and breeze dried things off enough and then picked some more, took another break, started on the tomatoes for canning this evening, just finished peeling them, taking a half hour break before finishing them up tonight. looks like about 18-20 quarts. the last part is really the easiest part. warming them up, stirring once in a while, getting them into the jars and then into the oven to seal up. goes pretty quick. i'll have them done by about 12:30...

 

[Branching Out]

picked many bean pods until we got rained on, took a break, went out again after the sun and breeze dried things off enough and then picked some more, took another break, started on the tomatoes for canning this evening, just finished peeling them, taking a half hour break before finishing them up tonight. looks like about 18-20 quarts. the last part is really the easiest part. warming them up, stirring once in a while, getting them into the jars and then into the oven to seal up. goes pretty quick. i'll have them done by about 12:30...

Mostly spent the day panicking over the number of 'Homemade Pickles' pickling cukes that are hanging on the vine. Looks like some work ahead tomorrow. Friends have invited us out to go crabbing on their boat, so not quite sure how all of this will fit in.

 

[flowerbug]

Mostly spent the day panicking over the number of 'Homemade Pickles' pickling cukes that are hanging on the vine. Looks like some work ahead tomorrow. Friends have invited us out to go crabbing on their boat, so not quite sure how all of this will fit in.

hahaha! yes, i remember the days when we had 15 cucumber plants. it was a constant struggle to keep up with them and make pickles on top of finding people who'd take cucumber salad and other things made with them. we never planted that many again. good luck!

 

[SPedigrees]

I can relate. Last summer I put up enough pickles to last me the entire winter, even after my sister took a bunch of jars home with her. I'm missing good cukes now. I think this must have been a bad year for them, because those in the supermarket have the consistency of cucumbers that have been in storage for awhile, and those I bought at the farmers market were bitter.

Two days ago I climbed the hill behind the house, battling waist-high weeds to reach 3 little Norway spruce planted a couple years ago, and remove the protective cages I'd built around them. When I'd run out of chicken wire, I made the bad decision to use deer netting rather than buy a whole new roll of wire. Untangling the branches from that netting and cutting it all off with scissors was quite the task, and I have the scars on both arms from needles to prove it. Trees had grown more than I'd expected. I'm too old for this kind of work, so I'm glad that is done.

I still have about 20 cages to remove up in the woods, but they are in an open area, and made of chicken wire easily removed by snipping 3 zip ties holding it onto the short metal posts. Then all my trees will be free! They can hold their own against hungry deer now.

 

[Dahlia]

hahaha! yes, i remember the days when we had 15 cucumber plants. it was a constant struggle to keep up with them and make pickles on top of finding people who'd take cucumber salad and other things made with them. we never planted that many again. good luck!

If you like blue cheese dressing, a great snack is a freshly picked cucumber peeled, deseeded, and dipped in that dressing! I always include a couple cucumber plants in my garden just for that!

 

[SPedigrees]

If you like blue cheese dressing, a great snack is a freshly picked cucumber peeled, deseeded, and dipped in that dressing! I always include a couple cucumber plants in my garden just for that!

De-seeded??? Horror of horrors, gasp! I don't even remove all the peel, just about half, but removing the seeds is like eating an artichoke and discarding the heart.

Thumbs up for blue cheese dressing as a dip though.

 

[Dahlia]

De-seeded??? Horror of horrors, gasp! I don't even remove all the peel, just about half, but removing the seeds is like eating an artichoke and discarding the heart.

Thumbs up for blue cheese dressing as a dip though.

Ok, I will do some back peddling on this - if the cucumber is small, then I eat the whole thing! If it's big, then I deseed and peel.

 

[Branching Out]

I can relate. Last summer I put up enough pickles to last me the entire winter, even after my sister took a bunch of jars home with her.

Do you by any chance have a good pickle recipe? And in your opinion is it necessary that the jars be hot when you fill them with the cukes? I am hoping my husband can help me to trim and pack the cucumbers in the jars, and that we can just fill the jars with hot brine before placing them in the water bath canner.

 

[Cosmo spring garden]

Hot peppers are finally coming in! Dehydrated this batch for flakes and powder. The plant on the right has the smallest peppers I've ever grown. A friend gave me few peppers last year and I saved the seeds to grow in my garden. She bought the seeds from baker creek and apparently they are the most expensive peppers in the world. I bet they are since harvesting them in a pain! I haven't tried one but the description says they have the same spice level as cayenne.
The basket has:
Aji (tiny)
Habanero
Ghost
Thai
2 types of cayenne
Tabasco
Calabrian

It should make tasty flakes. That is if anyone can actually taste anything after they burn the top two layers of your tongue

 

[Zeedman]

My cucumbers did incredibly well this year, to the point where it was a challenge finding homes for them all. It was like "zucchini syndrome", where your friends and neighbors turn & run when they see you coming with a box. I had 15 plants this year. Eight of those plants (the Japanese variety "Nippon Sanjaku Kiuri") were intended for seed production... but I forgot to tell that to the plants, and they just kept producing regardless of all the cukes let go for seed.

Fortunately the cucumbers have begun winding down... because tomatoes, peppers, and dry seed are ramping up. As soon as there are enough ripe peppers, I'll start canning salsa. Limas, cowpeas, and yardlongs have gone into overdrive, and can literally dry down over-night.

Seed saving is now in full speed.

I just noticed DW peeking between the shelves... it reminds me of how we met.