Two things have happened since my last post, neither of which are particularly pleasant. The first is that my lovely, 7-week long summer vacation has come to an end, so I spent the last week working instead of in my garden.
The second is that the weather has turned to rain, so the garden was largely neglected even in my off-work hours. We have harvested vegetables as needed, and kept up with picking and freezing our blackberries (as they are conveniently planted next to where we park our cars...) but otherwise, the garden has suffered.
And while she was doing that, I made pickles! This is my second batch of bread and butter pickles, not too salty or dilly... actually quite mild. Flavored with mustard seed, dill seed, onion, and white pepper. The kids liked them just fine the first go-around, even went so far as to say that they were as good as store-bought, which is some praise coming from them. Personally, I thought they were better 😉
This rainy Sunday, however, I ventured into the monsoon weather to do some harvesting. I knew the tomato vines and plum tree were absolutely loaded and in desperate need of attention. I started in the green house (my mother not having raised any fools) and after wedging myself in the tiny space in the doorway not overgrown by vegetation, picked a couple pounds of tomatoes and three big fat cucumbers. Then I spent a great deal of time trying to cut back the unproductive or overgrown parts of plants to relieve the congestion. I did a pretty good job! Leaving the green house I only had to stoop slightly while leaning to the right.
A bucket of plums was quickly gathered in the rain, and then I was back inside my warm witchen to take care of everything.
As you know, I've already made two liters of my plum preserves, so today's plums were going to be frozen. I pit and quarter mine before freezing, so they're ready to use when thawed. Then I vaccum pack them, and they're ready to freeze. When thawed, they're a bit mushy, but perfect for another batch of preserves. I froze 2 1-liter bags, so I'm set for preserves until next plum season.
We still had some plums left over so my daughter whipped up a cake for our afternoon coffee.
And while she was doing that, I made pickles! This is my second batch of bread and butter pickles, not too salty or dilly... actually quite mild. Flavored with mustard seed, dill seed, onion, and white pepper. The kids liked them just fine the first go-around, even went so far as to say that they were as good as store-bought, which is some praise coming from them. Personally, I thought they were better 😉
So I feel a bit better about life now that I've played with my fruits and veg. And I'll feel even better after a piece of that cake!
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