Ah! My first day back after vacation! I was surprised by how much the garden grew, especially considering the heat. Everything looked wonderful and very well cared for. This group obviously worked hard while I was gone.
Today we started by harvesting, as usual. We are being inundated with cucumbers and squash!! What a blessing! So while Karen, Colin and Ed went down to the kitchen to prepare the squash for freezing, the rest of us got to work on . . . PICKLES!! Everyone loves our homemade kosher dill pickles because there is nothing else like them. We use our own cucumbers, garlic, dill, and a chunk of hot pepper from the garden in each jar. It is very time-consuming work and while some harvested the dill, others peeled garlic or measured spices into the jars. Then everyone learned how to slice and then raw pack the cucumbers tightly into the jars. This was no easy task but everyone became quite skilled at it. In the end we had canned 25 pints and 7 quarts of pickles. We are looking forward to tasting them soon!
Looking back
"I can't leave my parsley! My babies need me!" -Carley (who is in charge of keeping tiny parsley plants alive through this fiierce heat)
"We're packing some serious pickle heat!" - also Carly
"I love garlic but I think I'm allergic to it" - Tamara
"Pickling is a lot of work! - But really worth it!" - Celia
"I love the sweet smell of vinegar" - Julia
Tamara and Willie slicin' and dicin'
Julia working on packing pickles
Carly packing them tight!
Twin attached yellow squash. Colin says they look like running legs
(Run! Run! As fast as you can! You can't catch me - I'm the yellow squash man!)
The onions are huge!
Cherry bomb and Mesilla hot peppers
Honey bees collecting pollen on a sunflower
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