Pickles!

My cucumbers have been doing pretty well and I wanted to try canning pickles instead of just the fridge pickles I have been making.  I like the instructions on the Pick Your Own site.

They suggest to use a canning mix.  The recipes all call for 8-11 pounds of pickles.  That canner used to belong to my late Grandma Anna, it makes me happy to be able to use it and think of her.

I had been collecting pickles for a few days though and only had about three pounds.  So I had to do some math and hope that it works.

My husband wanted some dill pickles so I started with those.

 

I cut off the ends (the blossom ends contain an enzyme that make the pickles mushy) and cut them into spears.  Apparently putting grape leaves in with them make them more crunchy.  Luckily I have four muscadine grape vines in my garden.

 

And here they are waiting to go into the water bath for processing.  Can't wait to try them.

My bees have been very busy (we are planning to do a honey extraction next week) and I am hoping to have some more cucumbers to pickle in the near future.

Today's Harvest

Today's Harvest

 

I hope I have enough cucumbers to make canned dill pickles.  I like some of the recipes on this website and find their directions helpful:  Pick Your Own

Dining from the Garden

Usually I don't get much from my garden.  But this year I am starting to see success.

 

I finally got some carrots to grow in my raised beds.  The trick is to thin mercilessly and to make sure the soil is loose.  They didn't grow very long because they are in raised beds.

 

 

This morning I noticed a huge cucumber on my vines.  I had seen one blossom early on but figured nothing would come of it.  Then I happened to see it this morning while my husband was out checking the beehives.  It weighed in at 14 ounces.  My husband claims that I bought one at Publix to stick in my garden.  I was as surprised to see it there as he was.  There are a lot more blossoms on the vines now, so I am hoping that we will see more in the near future.

I made refrigerator pickles out of it.  They taste pretty good.  They are on the menu for tonight with roasted carrots (in butter) along with BBQ chicken (no, not the ones in our backyard) and some corn I did buy at Publix.  Should be a delicious summer meal.