Pickle, Pickle, Who's Got the Pickle?

Today I enter into the world of canning. As I type this I have my first batch of dill pickles boiling away on the stove. This is all new to me and I decided to make pickle wedges as my cucumbers were a bit big. I should have a nice bunch of smaller cucumbers to pick tomorrow or Monday that I can pickle also. The house is smelling so good, I look forward to seeing how they turned out after their week of "sitting." My kids are all ready to eat pickles, I don't think they understand how long the process really is. Good thing we still have some store bought pickles left in the fridge.

I have to add dill to my garden plan for next year. It smells so good and looks pretty cool also. I remember when I was growing up, my Grandma always had a huge dill plant behind her house. It was just the coolest thing.

I'm using a pretty standard recipe for dill pickles, right out of the BHG red and white cookbook. Does anyone have a great pickle recipe that they wouldn't mind sharing with a beginner?

Things of Green

Last night was a harvest of lots of things green. I was able to have my first picking of shelling peas. Boy are those a lot of work for a cup and a half of peas, they do taste great so that is redeeming. It was my 3rd pick of sugar snap peas and 2nd for green beans and 2nd for the cucumbers also. The lettuce has been picked here and there for a few weeks now when ever we want/need some and of course Amy the bunny loves it, so we pick her some also. I am hoping to add some red to this picture in the next week or so, there are a couple of my tomatoes that look like they just might be starting to enter into that ripening process.

I am still in love with my garden, but not the mosquitoes that seem to like it too. Normally mosquitoes have never bothered me. I have spent summers on the Namekagon and St. Croix rivers up here as a river guide and never used bug spray once and they left me alone, but now.... 30 seconds in the garden and they almost carry a person away. I think that next year I am going to strategically plant some citronella plants throughout the garden, maybe that will help keep those pesky things at bay.

A couple of weeks ago I discovered my first watermelon which was at that point the size of a very small marble, last night I found tons of watermelons. I was so excited! My biggest one is about the size of a tennis ball. I'll be sure to take some more pics this weekend and get them posted. I just get so excited each time I find a new baby something down there in the garden.

Enjoyment

This morning I had the chance to enjoy my first cucumber from our garden. There is definitely a difference between fresh just picked, home grown cucumbers and those things you get in the store that have that slimy wax on them. Yuck! My cucumber open faced sandwich (a favorite that I pick up on in Norway many years back visiting family and friends) was wonderful. My Cucumbers aren't big as they are a pickling variety, but are very tasty. I hope to try canning a few jars of pickles this weekend if I have enough pickle sized cucumbers. Gotta try Grandma's Mustard Pickle recipe. I also blanched and froze about a gallon of green beans and a quart of sugar snap peas. We had fresh ones in turkey stir fry the other night and they were fabulous, the kids kept picking them out and eating just them. I was surprised when Scott said that the meat was part of his turkey from this spring, it was tender and not gamy tasting.

I was thinning out some of the carrots as they got planted too close together in some spots and they are actually looking like carrots. Way fun. Instead of composting these tiny little things I'm feeding them to Amy the Lionhead bunny. Boy does she like those, they are gone in an instant. We are all excitedly waiting to be able to harvest big carrots.

A New Addition

We had a family reunion on my Aunt's farm this weekend. On our way down on Friday the car was filled with a wonderful aroma that sent me reeling into memories of the past (both good and bad.) It was the smell of fresh cut hay and I thing that is one of my favorite smells. It both invokes beautiful memories of growing up on the farm and also instant tiredness and sore muscles from hours and hours of tossing hay bales around during haying season. As much as I miss the farm, I don't miss haying.

The family reunion was great and we got to see our cousin Luke from AZ. who we didn't think was going to be there. Great surprise! My kids love going to the farm and are always singing "Old MacDonald" except we change it to "Auntie Lori Had a Farm!"

On Sunday the kids and I, Grandma and Buppa, Greta, Nico and the boys went to Irvine Park. Great place, it has playgrounds a small zoo like area and a petting zoo. The kids had a blast. Funny thing is that we came home with a furry little bunny. The kids didn't know that I was going to get her, but they were very excited. She is a gray with tan/brown dusty looking Lionhead and adorable. (pictures to come later.) All the way home the kids were trying to think of a name for her and we settled on "Amy." The name Amy came from Adin, after a camper we had last week at camp and whom Adin fell in love with. So we now have Amy who is living in Adin's room and is really enjoying the spoils of our garden which the kids are having a ball picking and feeding her.