Tuesday, August 12, 2014

~The Pickle Post, Part 1~


When it was decided that we would be planting a garden this year, I somehow decided to use up all of the old seed packets that had been laying around for years.  "Just in case".  As in, "Just in case, the kids decide gardening isn't in the works."  Or, "Just in case, this spot doesn't work out."  

Seeds went in here and there, all willy-nilly, and by the seat of your pants.  Thrill gardening if you must.  Because I was running out of time, and the rain wouldn't stop coming.

Then one day, the lowly cucumber plants, that I already had to replant twice, for whatever reason, had taken over the ENTIRE garden.  No joke.



And I don't like cucumbers.

"I know!"  I exclaimed to my armful of cucumbers, "I'll make pickles!"  I'm all brilliant like that.  So off I rushed to my handy dandy canning book... and oh my gosh there's sooooo many kinds, and they are all so different, and I have soooo many cucumbers, and my grandmother's voice came out of my mouth, "I can't waste all of this food!"

In the next brilliant moment I decided that I would make all of the pickles.  So we'll be able to test each one, and decide which one we love the most... for next year of course, because by the time the pickles are ready, I'm sure all of the plants will be dead.  Heck, we might even decide we hate them all, in which I'll laugh, and then cry.  ;)  



Now sitting on my shelf we have:
Some of the recipes said to let the pickles sit for a month, others said overnight.  I'm going to be fair and let them all sit for 4 weeks, and then we're going to start popping those seals!  After a "professional" taste test (one done by the kids of course), we'll give you our final reviews.  

Until then I'm going to enjoy my house not smelling like pickles for now.  ;)

Do you have a favorite pickle recipe?


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Friday, August 8, 2014

~July in the Garden~

Truth be told, I've been doing awful at getting the right pictures taken at the right time.  And the weeds (we won't blame the husband who aimed the grass cuttings directly into the garden) have gotten so insane, despite my attempts to keep them under control... I really don't like the entire view of the garden... It's too green, if you can believe that.  ;)


Then there's another horrible side affect of planting everything too close together, having the weeds take over, and just being extremely busy all summer... Bugs.  The squash borers are HORRIBLE.  And when you squish them with your fingers, they ooze out a blue cream, and ugggggghhhhhh.  (I'll spare you the pictures)  I would love nothing more than to dump a bazillion bottles of raid on my poor garden... but since I have animals and small children who spend half of their days hiding in the tomatoes... yeah, it's not going to happen.  You can be proactive with the evil squash bugs, and pull off their eggs, squish/drown the adults, and keep their numbers to a point where you don't see much damage, but I'm afraid we're too late, and now we can only hope that the 4-6 pumpkins I've seen survive to harvest time.  Next year we'll have to be way more proactive.  (Maybe bribes will get the kids over their fear of the blue goo!  ~Kidding, maybe)


I have to say though, for a rushed garden, that was unplanned, spur of the moment, with 2 year old seeds, things are thriving... or at least doing quite well considering the situation.  The sunflowers are beautiful, if you ignore the fact that all but one were knocked over from the storm, and they're blooming on the ground.  The tomatoes are doing... okay.  Since our garden was unplanned, I didn't have the time to grow tomatoes from seed.  I bought whatever was offered cheap at the local store, and then if you factor in the fact that it's been extremely cool here.  They're just doing okay.  I had toss out (compost/critters) the first two batches we picked because they were so soft, and rotten, like they just couldn't ripen in this weather.  They're recovering, slowly, and I think some pruning has helped as well.  


The chickens (all 3 that we have left from last year's massacre)  are deeming themselves totally worthless.  Let me rephrase that.  The chickens, had we a rooster, would have hatched out billions of chicks by now.  But we don't have a rooster, and they're just cranky and mean when you try to shove them off of an egg.  Brooding is awesome when you have tons of chickens, and you want to hatch chicks.  Brooding is a pain in the butt when all three go into it.  Apparently there's plans to rehab our chicken efforts, so I've heard.  We'll see.


And like I said, July was not my month for taking awesome shots of the garden.  Although we did get tons of work done around here.  I think my grand total for planting was 4 blue spruces, 1 dogwood, 6 bushes, 2 pussy willows, 2 raspberry bushes, 1 peony, 1 hydrangea, and an entire shade flowerbed on the side of our house.  Knock on wood, everything looks to be doing good, and I hope it all comes back, because I so don't want to ever plant that much at one time ever again!  Well until I put in that mini orchard I've been wanting!  


On top of the gardening and planting, we've been re-doing our son's room, and cleaning up the entire property, trying to prepare it for some "hopeful" plans for next spring, and beyond.  And with super nice weather, and constant projects the summer all too quickly fades.  School starts next week, canning season has taken hold... and I don't want summer to end.  

How did July treat you?
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Disclosure: I may receive monetary compensation, or products for my endorsements, recommendations, testimonials, links and ads to any products and or services listed in this blog. This helps support my homesteading and crafting habits, and is a huge blessing! Thank you for your support!