Homemade Pickles from Garden Cucumbers

Making your own pickles is a relatively simple process, made even easier with help from a "Mrs. Wages - Dill Pickle Mix".

I started out with a sink full of cucumbers picked fresh from our garden.

I then cut them up into the sizes and shapes that I wanted. Some jars have spear pickles, others are whole pickles, and the remaining are pickle slices.

I then prepared the mix by following the package directions, pour the hot mix over my cucumber pieces, capped the jars, and processed in a hot water bath. The end result was 14 pints of freshly made pickles! Thirteen pints went into the cupboard, and one pint went directly into the refrigerator for use.

If you've never canned anything before, pickles are a quick and easy way to learn!

Supplies needed to make your own pickles:

9-11 lbs of cucumbers (the small pickling kinds work best, as their name implies)
Vinegar
Water
Pickle mix
Canning jars, lids, and rings
Canning pot
Lid Lifter (not necessary, but very helpful) - I have used a fork to lift the lids before, and it works, but the lid lifter works better
Jar grabber (not necessary, but very helpful) - You could also use tongs, but the hot jars are mush more easily handled with the grabber designed for the job

GardenMats - An Update

Do you remember my post about GardenMats? Well, I thought I should take a minute and update you about how our garden is doing this year.

Unfortunately, Mother Nature hasn't provided us the optimum gardening weather this year, but we've still managed to keep our plants alive. With the help of the GardenMats, weeding has been much less daunting, and also has the advantage of keeping our vegetables from sitting in the dirt as they are growing/forming.

So far, we are very happy with the performance of the GardenMats, and have no complaints. They have continued to perform exactly as they were described to by the company. I'm certain that they will continue to be a mainstay in our gardening adventures for years to come.

What To Do With All That Rhubarb?

I came to the sudden realization today, that I haven't done anything with the rhubarb growing in our backyard yet this year!  We've only been growing it for the past couple of years, and my rhubarb recipes to date have been limited to ONE.  Unfortunately, our rhubarb stalks were quite spindly this year, but that didn't stop me from trying out a new recipe!  I wish I had taken a picture of the end result, but by the time I thought of it, the confection had been reduced to mere crumbs by my family.

Alas, here's the recipe that we tried, and LOVED!

Rhubarb Bars

Ingredients:
1 c. flour
1/3 c. powdered sugar
1/3 c. butter

Filling:

1 c. sugar
1/4 c. flour
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 tsp. vanilla
3 c. finely chopped fresh or frozen rhubarb

Procedure:
Combine flour & powdered sugar; cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Press into the bottom of a greased 11-inch x 7-inch x 2-inch baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes. For filling, combine first four ingredients. Stir in rhubarb; pour over warm crust. Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool on wire rack. Serve warm if desired. Store in refrigerator.


My family LOVED this recipe!

Hidden Edibles

We have various food producing plants scattered around our yard, tucked in flower beds, or serving as their own yard art.  The chives pictured above are cozied up in a corner of a flower bed behind our house.  The rhubarb below has its own stone walled garden bed, and lives on the wood line of our back yard.

For Mother's Day this year my daughter gave me a single strawberry plant (as well as a bunch of annuals for one of the flower barrels), being the only strawberry plant that I have, it lives in the corner of yet another flower bed.

Another not-so-hidden edible plant that we have is peppermint.  I didn't take a picture of it, because the peppermint makes me angry.   Don't get me wrong, I love the smell of peppermint, it's a pretty plant, but it spreads like crazy.  A few years ago we had ants that were making their way into our house, so I sought out remedies to keep the little buggers from coming inside.  One of the suggestions that I read was to plant peppermint around the foundation of the house.  So I bought two measly little peppermint plants.  I planted them in the flower beds in front of our house, and didn't think much of it after that.  No one warned this novice gardner that peppermint is a self propogating nightmare!!  I have plucked more peppermint from those two flower beds than I care to admit!  Lesson learned, if you're going to grow peppermint, a potted plant is more ideal.  At least it has seemingly deterred the ants though!!

GardenMats - Ease the pain of weeding!

                          

We love fresh vegetables, we love growing our own vegetables, but we hate weeding!!! Ugh! To help combat the weeds this year we purchased GardenMats.  GardenMats boast claims that they drastically reduce the amount of weeding necessary to maintain a healthy garden.  The mats come in various lengths, and with holes sized for the plants that you intend to grow, and are said to last at least ten years!  Most importantly, for us, GardenMats are proven to grow 100% organic vegetables with no fear of chemicals leeching from the mats into the soils where the plants are growing!

The initial calculations were a little daunting, merely because we had to decide what we were going to plant, how many of each plant we wanted, and which mats would then need to accomodate our plans.  We were forunate in the fact that GardenMats are produced locally, and we were able to go to their place of business and buy them directly from the source.  GardenMats can also be purchased via their website, with a nominal shipping charge. 

Set up was easy!  We simply rolled out the GardenMats over our tilled garden soil, and staked them into the ground.  We made sure that each mat abutted the next to inhibit weed growth between the mats and rows of plants.  We then planted the seeds in the holes, following seed depth recommendations on the packages, and planted our pre-established plants in their designated holes. 

The growing season here in Vermont is still in the early stages, since gardeners typically don't plant their garden crops until after Memorial Day to avoid the fear of frost.  In the picture above, our garden is about two weeks old.  As you can see, there are no weeds coming up through the GardenMats!!  The few weeds that we do have are in the exposed holes, and easily recognizable from the growing crops that we planted. 

It has only been a couple of weeks since installation, but so far we're very happy with the results.  GardenMats does offer a refund of your purchase if you aren't happy with the mats after two years of use.  Thus far, I highly doubt we'll be taking them up on their refund option, as it has already greatly reduced the amount of weeding that we would typically have done at this point. 

I'll continue to update on the progress of our garden, and our opinions of the GardenMats as the season progresses.

**I am in no way affiliated with GardenMats.  This is simple a review of our experiences with the product.**