Ready to Go!

Last week I was able to get out into my garden most mornings, while my grand-kids slept in. I got all of my green beans chopped up and left in place; then, I covered them up with mulch--a green layer covered by a brown layer (composting in place). I did leave my regular cucumbers (took out my pickling cucumbers), and my dill. The dill is nearly ready for harvesting the seeds.

Dill Pickles

Pickling cucumbers are different than regular eating cucumbers. The picklers (top cuk in the picture) have "spines", kind of like cactus. The spines are black or white, and are scrubbed off with a vegetable brush. If they don't all come off, that's OK, the pickling brine will dissolve them. The pickling cucumber will stand up to the brining process, but the eating cucumbers (bottom cuk in the picture) may just go to mush (I've not tried it). Pickling cucumbers can be eaten fresh, just make sure the spines are gone!
I find that I need to plant dill two weeks before I plant the pickling cucumbers, so the dill will have the flower heads that are used in the pickles. The picture below is of one head of dill. Each little flower will ripen to make a seed, if left to mature in the garden.
Dill Pickle Recipe:

To each scalded quart jar add:

1/8 teaspoon alum
1 clove of garlic
2 heads of dill
1 hot pepper, optional
sliced pickling cucumbers

For the brine:

1 quart cider vinegar
1 cup pickling or non-iodized salt
(not table salt, it will turn the
brine cloudy)
3 quarts of water

Heat brine to boiling; pour over the
cucumber mix above; seal with
scalded lids, and tighten rings.

Allow 6 weeks for pickling, then eat!!
Here's what they look like. I'm the only one in my home that eats them, so I canned them in pints. They are so good!

I finally got my netting up for my cucumbers to climb on. There is a plastic pole across the top of the netting, which will hold the netting tight while the weight of the climbing cucumbers increases.

My pickling cucumbers have sprouted and are doing well. We had a thunderstorm blow through here yesterday, but there was no damage in my yard--except that my arbor was blown into the deep end of our pool! If there had been anything growing on it, the arbor might have stayed put, but that was not the case. My tomatoes are either caged or tied to stakes, so they made it through the high wind; and all of my fruit trees are OK. A couple of days ago I topped my apricot and plum trees, so I think that helped.

I will be gone for the next two weeks. We are driving up to northern Idaho to visit family, and I won't be blogging during that time. I hope you have a beautiful May! Happy growing!

Bed of Summer Vegetables

Here's the garden bed that I started working on a few days ago (it has the cucumber seeds). Today I put the soaker hose in position, keeping it in line with the sticks; and then I planted other seeds. I continued along the back with my pickling cucumber seeds, along the left end of the box is dill, and the rest of the bed is in Blue Lake green beans. There are three 8' rows of green beans, a lot of beans for fresh eating, but these are mainly for canning. I will be thinking they are a lot of beans when it comes time to pick them!

Here's the bed all set to grow! I did see that one of my regular cucumber seeds has sprouted, so they are on their way! I watered the newly planted seeds in, but the ground was really dry to start with, so I have the soaker hose going--I want the soil to be perfect for sprouting all of the seeds.

Cucumbers and Dill

I finally got a start to planting my summer seeds. I put in three 2 x 2 posts that will hold up some netting for my cucumbers to climb on. I planted half of a row in regular eating cucumbers, and will plant the other half in pickling cucumbers (I just bought the seeds). I will also plant some dill; and I look forward to making my own dill pickles, again. They were the first thing I learned to can after I made jams. Dill pickles are so easy, no cooking and no water bath! There's not much canning that's easier than that! I will plant the rest of the bed in green beans, again for canning.

Harvesting

Today we shelled Summerfelt Beans. They are a dry bean and really good in soups and chili. My Dad has his own unique way of growing these beans--in the spring he sows the beans, and when they don't come up in a reasonable amount of time, he plants them again. When they don't come up a second time, he plants them a third time. Then, in about 2 weeks, they ALL come up! He does get anxious to get them in the ground, he just needs to be more patient! He has done this for years and it works every time!

We picked an acorn squash that we will have for dinner. We also picked apples from his tree and will have apple pie for dessert tonight!

The third picture is of his cucumbers that were touched by the frost. The plants are still growing and the cucumbers are really good!