The Garden Chronicles

The year started with plenty of precipitation and then a drought settled-over the land for more than a month.  What managed to germinate at the second and third sowing withered and died for lack of a drink.  Let's face it, well water from my aquifer is a poor substitute for the stuff God distributes from the sky.  Things were looking grim until regular rains returned by the end of July.  We're still behind in the the seasonal growing period with a net shortfall but we've harvested green beans, cukes, sweet peppers and plenty of basil for brick oven pizzas.

Just the other day there was this:  Real San Marzano tomatoes along with big beefy beefsteak fruit and sweet yellow cherry-size tomatoes for daily snacking.  I'll likely have sufficient tomatoes to can for both pizza sauce and juice.

And sweet Northstar peppers too.

Check out this melon

It's been a rough year; nevertheless, sometimes you can delightfully turn the corner.  There are Kakai seed pumpkins growing on the vine along with a couple of rows of yummy-looking leeks.  Cukes are still producing.

Vive le Jardin Magnifique!

Cucumber Avalanche!

It was on Sunday that some friends of of ours were passing thru on their way to Peninsula State Park.  We had a nice socially distanced visit and they were commenting on my garden.  It was at that time I took a peek at my cucumber vines.  There were a bazillion blossoms and a handful of tine cukes beginning to form.  I took another peek this afternoon.

Whoa!

It's like they grew overnight and snuck-up on me.   Cucumber Avalanche!

There are pickles to be canned very soon....... 

Crispy, Crunchy Sweet Pickles

Remember those nice-looking pickling cukes I obtained from the Sturgeon Bay farmers market Saturday?

They're officially pickles.

I sliced them on the mandolin and limed them overnight on Saturday.  

 click on the cukes for a better view

Sunday I soaked them and drained them three times in cold fresh water and introduced them to a kettle of boiling brine (equal parts of cane sugar and vinegar) along with two bottles of pickling spice and a scant handful of kosher salt.  Turned-off the heat and let them set all day on the stove top.  

Later I brought the pot to a boil and cooked them for thirty additional minutes and stuffed them in dishwasher-sanitized pint jars with boiling-hot brine.  Add sterilized lids and locked-down the bands.  This is a hot-pack method and doesn't use an additional pasteurization step in the canner.  The original recipe was originally published on September 7, 2011 on the old Tosa Gas Pains Blog.

Nineteen pints of crispy, crunchy sweet pickles.  Great on a burger, in tuna or egg salad, a grilled cheese or just about anywhere.

Kosher Dills

From a week and a half ago - 24 pints of pickles infused with garlic, dill seed and a salty brine.

There aren't any Rabbis around these parts but I'm still referring to these yummy, zesty, crispy chips and spears as kosher dills. 

This was the only batch of pickles made from garden cukes.  Damn cold and rain really put the kibosh on the pickle factory.  Although I did get some really fine full-grown cukes for Greek cucumber salad and dipping.

The Garden Chronicles

Nice collection of pickles, eh?  

They're from the Sturgeon Bay farmers market and a self-service roadside stand around the corner about a mile from the house.

The garden has been a challenge this year with August being the coldest on record in sixteen years.  It's simply hard to grow vegetables successfully with cold and rain.  Add to the mix a personal schedule that takes several weekends out of the calendar with other obligations and voilà  - pretty soon the growing season is over and your pickle plants are played-out. 

The good news is that I was able to get a batch of crispy crunchy dill pickles packed with garden-grown cukes.  And the sweet peppers, green beans and lettuces and spinach have done well.  Tomatoes not so much.  Pumpkins ain't happening.  The jury is out on the spuds and onions.  A melange of triumphs and failures.

Sigh....

Pickle Avalanche!

click on the cukes to enlarge

That's the end of it.

Those beauties have been converted into 20 pints of the infamous crunchy garlic dill pickles and an additional 7 pints of crispy, crunchy sweet pickles.

The cuke harvest was awesome this year but the plants in the garden are about played-out.  Pulling them-up today.  All that's left are a half-dozen 'eater' cucumbers in the fridge.

Mmmmm

Tuesday, 12:30 AM.

The first 20 pints of organically-raised, free-range, Kosher-free, garlic dill pickles are ready for the root cellar.

Bring-on the burgers, brats, wieners and Bloody Marys - the pickle avalanche has commenced....

 click to enlarge

Guess What I'm Making?

Run.  Run for your lives. 

 click on the cukes to enlarge

Pickle AVALANCHE!

Pickles

Last weekend was the end of the cucumber patch.  Picked the last of the cukes and made pickles.  The rest of the cukes are going to the food pantry and the day job.

Finally perfected the dill recipe.

click on the jar to enlarge

I have a fine supply of dill and sweet in the cellar.