Searching for the Perfect Pickle

Two years ago, we were blessed with an abundance of cucumbers from our well-shaded 2-box garden-behind-the-kitchen.  So I set about making pickles.  I used a recipe from the Internet that declared that they would taste “exactly like Claussen” dill pickles.  So, after many late nights spent spearing and canning and an appropriate amount of curing time had elapsed, we sampled the “exactly like Claussen” dill pickles.  That is, if by “dill” you mean incredibly sweet and a bit soft.  Pickle fail!

Last year’s pickle season was lost to the whole process of moving everything we owned a few miles west and then the lingering process of trying to figure out where to put and where I have put stuff.

But this year, we are back on the pickle hunt!

We planted three varieties of pickles, which have varied in growth performance.

Exhibit A: the organic “Marketmore” variety that were part of a Costco multi-pack of seeds.  These were directly sown into the ground, and thanks to God’s perfect timing, needed a trellis at exactly the same time that the peas were done.  Trellised cucumbers are a beautiful thing.

Marketmore enjoying the trellis

Exhibit B: the “Muncher” variety.  They are beautiful, evenly green and perfectly sized for, well, munching.  I’m sure they would also be great for pickling, but they are so perfect that the bugs get them before I do, so most have been eaten by the chickens.  Oh, for the lack of a trellis!

Exhibit C: the “National Pickling” variety.  They’re short.  They’re wide.  They’re warty and they’re immensely variegated in color.  That must be why they are bound for pickles.   Again, they would have really benefitted from trellising, but they must be too ugly even for the bugs.

National Pickling in need of a pickling

And so, we have pickles.  I’ve made two batches:  I used a ready-mix for 4 pints of refrigerator pickles (seriously, if you have to store your canning jars in the fridge, what’s the point of canning?) and I used the “starter” pickle recipe from the Ball canning book for the second batch, 8 pints curing in the pantry.  I’ve got a third “sun-cured” pickle recipe to try, and then I suppose we are ready for a pickle taste testing.  Hopefully, we will find our family’s blue-ribbon recipe this year!

Web-Mistress
(and primary pickle maker)

While I Was Sleeping

While I was busy this week, it turns out the garden didn’t stand still.  The monsoon season here has apparently passed and the normal summer sun and temperatures have resulted in plants doing crazy things like growing and producing crops.

We got some huge cucumbers which tasted great as well as bunches of carrots.  But what was most pleasing was wandering through the garden and realizing some of the plants which got planted late turned out ok.  Check out the zucchini!  I was pretty sure were weren’t going to see any of these as our seedlings failed and we sowed very late in the season.  But it turns out we are being rewarded in spite of our best efforts.

Andy

Healthy Growth

Wow, it is amazing what a little bit of water and some warm sunshine will do for a garden.  I know this should not be a surprise but, at our last house, we did not have a full sun location for our small garden and we only saw moderate growth and crops.   All of the raised beds we are putting in here are full sun and it is amazing to watch the plants respond with some regular water and long hours of sunlight.

The berries that we got from Indiana Berry continue to do well.  I did not have any previous experience with bare root plants but both the strawberries and raspberries we planted are growing well.  Once we got the blueberries into the sun, they greened right up as well.  I still need to get after the soil on those, but they are off to a good start.

It is looking like our first crop of radishes is getting close to harvest.  It would probably serve me well to figure out exactly when to pick them, but that is a minor detail.  I was able to get a couple more beds built and managed to get winter squash, green beans, bunching onions, cucumbers, beets, and pumpkins planted.  The ever supportive Web-Mistress was quick to comment that the pumpkin bed looks as though it needs a bra.

The most important crop we have planted, though, were the sunflower seeds our four year old had picked out when we got our seed packets.  It is killing him that he has to wait to see them sprout.  Hopefully, his patience will be rewarded.  And just maybe, it will keep him out of my garden beds.

Andy