What's Up Wednesday!

Lots in bloom in the garden this week! All of my plantings for the Fall are really starting to grow- carrots, onions, broccoli, swiss chard, prize choy, lettuce, and sugar snaps. The tomatoes are starting to produce a bit less, so I thinned out the dried and dead stalks to try to make some space for new growth. Here are some pictures of what's up this week:

My one lone sunflower is blooming!

The fall broccoli is looking healthy and getting taller every day

I think it's about time to pick this cantaloupe!

I transplanted some of the "walkers" from the Egyptian walking onions I got this spring.

They are now popping up everywhere in the designated "fall section" of the garden

that will later be covered with a quick hoop. 

 Made and canned some cucumber pickles this past weekend!

Used the Dill Pickle recipe in the Freshly Packed Pickled Foods section of the

Blue Book of Preserving. It's a new recipe for me- we'll see how they turn out!

What's up in your Garden this week?

Refrigerator Pickles

After vacationing at Sleeping Bear Dunes, (a family tradition!),
I was eager to get home and start preserving. Besides soup, I haven't preserved anything else- time to get going! My mom and I found this Refrigerator Pickles recipe in Organic Gardening, and it looked delicious: like the epitome of summer! I gave it a try- my first experience pickling pickles!

Audrey's Pickles from Organic Gardening
1 pound medium cucumbers
3 cloves garlic
½ teaspoon black peppercorns
½ teaspoon whole mustard seed
1 teaspoon fresh dill weed
1 whole dried bay leaf
2/3 cup brown sugar
6½ tablespoons white distilled vinegar
6½ tablespoons white-wine vinegar
¾ cup water


1. Cut the cucumbers into spears or slices and place in a 2-quart container or jar with a lid. Add the garlic, peppercorns, mustard seed, and dill weed. (I used 4 pint jars instead, and just divided the cukes, garlic, peppercorns, mustard seed, and dill weed among the jars)

2. Stir together the brown sugar, vinegars, and water. Pour the vinegar mixture over the cucumbers and shake the jar(s) well to combine. Cover and chill. For fullest flavor, wait at least 24 hours before serving. These pickles will keep up to 3 months in the refrigerator.
Makes 2 quarts (about 18 servings)

Pickles!!!

Mike and I sampled them yesterday (we couldn't wait any longer, since 24 hrs is a loooong time), and they tasted pickley, even after just a day! :)

I think I am going to make a few modifications for the next time around (aka this evening), to make the taste a little more to my liking. There were a few small things I changed:

• If you're going to use pint-sized jars, I think you need more spices in each individual jar
• I bumped up the amounts of peppercorn, mustard seed, and dill
• The amount of vinegar and water was not nearly enough to fill each pint jar
• I didn't have bay leaf, so I didn't use it
• Increased the water proportion a bit more since I was upping the amount of vinegar used as wel

Here's my modified version:

Lycan Family pickles

1 pound medium cucumbers
3 cloves garlic
3 teaspoon black peppercorns
3 teaspoon whole mustard seed
3 teaspoon fresh dill weed
3 teaspoons of "spice" of your choice- jalapenos, ground red pepper flakes, etc. I chose to use McCormick Italian Spice
2/3 cup brown sugar
14 tablespoons white distilled vinegar
14 tablespoons white-wine vinegar
1½ cup water

Enjoy!!!