New Gardening

Wiregrass here is segmented. Herbicides will kill the segment it sprayed on & maybe the next segment. It mostly grows flat on the ground and its very similar looking root grows just as much below ground. Worse yet, if you chop it to bits like I did with a tiller, at least HALF those bits will live & try to become new wiregrass plants. Quite possibly as bad or worse than Kudzu!!!

 

I know its putting the cart before the horse, but when I was at the grocery store today I saw a Ball Canning display. Brought home a bottle of their "Bread & Butter Pickle Mix". Yeah I know the cucumbers a long way from picking muchless pickling but I wanted it so could see what all need to do.

Course I was also washing all the narrowmouth quart jars this evening as later this week, I'll be canning sum Pickled Beets after I buy them Friday from the person that grew them.

 

Been slowly breaking ground in the rows to kills weeds & weeding & got the wiregrass pretty much under control. Looks like by Sunday, my birthday, I'll have sum Squash!!! Course I should prolly mention I did cheat a lil on those squash I planted. 4 those hills, were crookneck squash plants I got at Lowes, in the hopes of staggering my squash harvest so they don't all come in at once.

Several the rows I can get Big Red my Troybuilt Tiller down to till the weeds if i'm careful. More rows I can't & Hoppin John not exactly stable enough I can be sure not to run a plant over. So I use mattock & hoe on those rows. Next year I'll be the one deciding where the rows are & Big Red WILL be able to fit down EVERY Row!!

 

Those darn packages of pickling spices are so expensive as opposed to bulk spices. You might want to try this recipe. It is a good of not great recipe. I may be biased. The spices are listed straight forward and for the most part, ones you probably have on hand anyway. jus saying.
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This was my grandmother's recipe. It is so good. Store-bought pickles don't even come close. This is a good recipe for anyone who would like to try pickling, but hasn't done it before. It's quite straight forward, not a lot of ingredients."
Ingredients

• • 15 cups sliced pickling cucumbers
  • 3 onions, thinly sliced
  • 1/4 cup coarse salt
  • 4 cups cracked ice
  • 2 1/2 cups cider vinegar
  • 2 1/2 cups sugar
  • 3/4 teaspoon turmeric
  • 1/2 teaspoon celery seeds
  • 1 tablespoon mustard seeds

Directions

1. Combine cucumbers, onions, salt and ice in a large bowl.
2. Mix well.
3. Put a weight on and allow to stand 3 hours. (For a weight, I use a plate with a gallon bottle of vinegar or water on top of it).
4. Drain thoroughly.
5. Combine vinegar, sugar, turmeric, celery seed and mustard seed in a large pot.
6. Add drained cucumbers.
7. Place pot on medium low heat.
8. Bring almost to a boil, but DO NOT ALLOW TO BOIL.
9. Remove from heat.
10. Seal in sterilized jars, 10 minutes in a hot water bath.

 

Last Monday I got my first squash from my garden. They were delicious. Just the Saturday before I put poles up & ran string as my butter beans seem to be starting to run & I don't care for that. Now every day I wander thru garden gently helping the butterbean plants to wrap around the paracord strung between the posts. Yesterday I got my first cucumbers from my garden. Today I tried making my first batch of Bread & Butter Pickles. Not entirely sure I like this way as the pint jars start out FULL of cucumbers slices but after coming out of canner they seem only HALF FULL!!! Might try a few more ways with future batches. Did get to try out my new Raised Canning Element on my electric stove. It worked fine though this wasn't exactly a Heavy Use Test.

I did have one VERY good question pop into my head as I was gagging & choking from the pickling brine. WTF Do cops use Teargas for?? geeze it seems the combo of allspice, vinegar, & sugar would be just as effective!!! Cuz it was a similar brine used for making pickled beets other week. Though the cinnamon sticks in the pickled beets brine might have made it worse than the bread & butter pickle brine!!!

I used Ball's Bread & Butter Pickle Mix in this batch where all you add is the mix, sugar, & vinegar to make the brine. Slice fresh cucumbers & place in jars, then pour pickling liquid over them & 15 minutes in a waterbath canner.

By the way, anyone want sum Squash? 7 Plants a bit much LoL

 

Yes.... Back To Eden movie. I've been tilling for years but right now I'm making mulch and getting ready to find someone with spoiled hay. I plan on having it a foot deep. We just bought this farm last year and I'm not up to breaking new ground for it. Husband works all the time. As you get older you just have to figure out easier ways to do things. And the guy in that movie, boy does he have it figured out! He even has his apple trees trained so you don't need a ladder to pick them.

 

Been making lots of Bread & Butter Pickles. Giving cucumbers & squash away even. My Peas & Beans are Nice Big plants trying to go everywheres LoL

Watermelon plants have a couple lil melons starting on each.


Let the cucumbers go without picking for a few days as my mother wants BIG cukes for a type of pickles she made long ago called Icicle or Transparent Pickles. Went to pick this morning as gonna be HAWT today. An sum these Boston Pickling Cucumbers are friggin HUGE!!! 8-12" long an as much as 3-4" Thick!!! LoL Gonna be a LOT of her Pickles!!!

 

Sorry it been awhile. But all I got to say is Peas Peas Peas Peas!!! Sheesh at least they calming down now, I hope. These ham & Gravy Peas take like an hour hopping thru my garden, then 5 hours of shelling. An yes I said hopping thr garden as Peas went Wild & made sure there is no possible way to walk thru garden. I estimate my lil pea patch has given me about 10 bushel of peas!.

Bought a 7 cu foot chest freezer & put in basement. Filled it up with sum sliced squash, & a whole lot of vacuum sealed packs of Peas!!!

My tater harvest other weak was poor. Prolly dun to late planting. Was tilling the former tater patch up this evening as turnips will soon be planted there.

My first plantings of Cucumbers & squash finally died out, so they were pulled up, several weeks ago. Replanted a couple hills each of squash & cucumbers for eating. Had my first squash this evening, grilled it.