Worth Repeating - Zucchini Pickles

I posted this recipe originally in July of 2011. This week, I've been hitting the jars of pickles I made last month and I thought I'd like to temp you again. They are remarkably crisp and just the perfect combination of sweet, sour and a touch of hot. I make mine with the hot peppers. If you have an abundance of zucchini, and have run out of freezer room for bread, or can't get the extra's to me, you might want to try this great recipe.

You can also find the original recipe in my recipe pull down, along with other great recipes.

Zucchini Pickles                                

9 qt thinly sliced zucchini
10 small onions sliced
6 ½ c sugar
6 c cider vinegar
¼ c pickling spice in cheesecloth
6 T salt

Optional 4 or 5 hot peppers halved seeded and sliced

In a large bowl or non aluminum kettle, sprinkle salt over all vegetables. Let stand for 4 hours. This will draw out excess moisture. Put into colander and drain.

Combine vinegar and sugar in a large kettle, add spices. Stir over high heat, cover and boil for 5 minutes. Add vegetables and bring to boil. Boil one minute. Remove spices.

Place in hot clean jars, apply lids according to manufacturers instructions. Process for 10 minutes with water one inch above tops of jars. Cool completely. Check seals the next day. Makes 5 quarts.

These sweet Zucchini pickles are absolutely wonderful on top of a slice of cheddar on a Ritz.

Best Garden Ever

One would think that with as little space as I have to work with, I might do better with my garden. Someone keeps threatening to move. Not until after harvest PLEASE, because I finally got things to produce in this lousy piece of soil.

Just look at the lush green. OK, so maybe the turnip and radishes have a few holes in the leaves, but mostly it's perfection. I've actually eaten some of the onion green, some radishes and a tiny pepper that had a dead spot on it. I cut the bad part off and removed it to not affect the whole plant. I think it was from the scorching hot sun the past few days.

Not that the garden is perfect, something ate my cucumbers, and my lettuce and carrots. The rows between the turnips, radishes and beans are a bit wider than planned. And OMG the tomatoes are so much bigger than I had imagined they would get. I am so eager to pick those puppies.

See my little row of herbs. Some are in pots, but most of them are in collars sunk into the ground to keep them from spreading. In front of the basil (out of view) is oregano, parsley, and a pathetic globe basil that I will never try again. The cilantro grew from last years seed I replanted in the pot. It's fabulous. The mint is growing like mad.  I "borrowed" some from the gardens down at the lake. This is the second year for the oregano too.

I decided to do this with the herbs after my DD's MIL kept weeding them out of our front beds. She apparently can't recognize leaf shapes, or the smell of herbs on her hands.

The line around the garden, isn't really a fence, it's more of a trip wire. Actually it's a line of demarcation, in hopes that the same family won't mow over the plants, or put the lawn furniture on them when they mow. So not kidding about that one. You should have heard me scream when I found our wagon on my budding onion sprouts. 


The overall view of the garden. The buckets in front are full of potatoes. When they are ready, you just dump them over and voila, No digging. Behind the potatoes are in order, onions, beans, radishes, turnips, tomatoes, patty pan squash and in pots at the back, green and jalapeno peppers.


 A row of corn runs down the side and there'a a huge squash type plant I didn't seed, at the back of the garden. I think it might have been Halloween pumpkin compost overflow. We'll see when it starts to produce. 

Oh how I hope that I can keep the garden this lush and harvest more than a few green tomatoes this year. The corn is fast growing, but I don't have much time to get it knee high by the Fourth of July. I plan on it being a fence to keep unwanted visitors out. 




As for the tomatoes. Here is a sweet baby, just waiting to grow and be enjoyed. isn't he a cutie?

The Garden Visitor

Yesterday I did a lot more work in the Veggie Garden. I finished turning over the soil, left it fluffy to dry, and turned in some more humus. I also put in some planters around the yard. I found an old Sap bucket without a bottom and an old Fire Station bucket without a bottom. Those will be great for planting. I love to contain oregano, but it likes to be deep rooted, so I'll put it in the Red Fire Station Bucket and the old ammo box which is really weather resistant, will hold my potted cilantro and basil. I can't wait. I'm going to look for some more cute planters to line the garden with, because that is the sunniest part of the yard, and it will look much cuter.

I also took the sap bucket and planted it in the ground and found a piece of terracotta drain pipe that I placed next to it. I put some sedum in the pipe, but not sure what I will put in the bucket. Doesn't get much sun so maybe impatiens will be nice there. I love to use that little sedum in pots too. It comes back every year and looks cute draping over the sides. If you buy vinca for you planters, you can take it out at the end of the year, roll it up and bury it underground, at least 6 inches.Then pull it up again in the spring. You don't have to buy it every year.

I know some Italians who love fresh figs so much that they do this with their fig trees. They don't weather will in Cleveland, but they have to be uprooted and buried a little deeper. It works though.

Now for my visitor. After all my hard work, I looked out of the window and saw a cheap tacky scarecrow in the corner of the garden. The property owner found it at a flea market for $1and added it to the garden. He was being nice, but I thought it was kind of tacky. Well I went out today to take his picture and I guess I found him a little charming, because I wasn't so upset when I took his picture. Maybe he will bless the crops at the back of the garden, where he won't block sunlight. Yeah, that's it.

I also found a clump of almost blooming Daffodils. So pretty. I bought a rose bush to plant in the beds this weekend too. I've been having problems with them. Who would believe. You can't get rid of roses when they establish, but trying to get them started is a chore. I planted one last year, too close to the dog run and she decided to dig it up. Nothing else, just the rose bush.

Hope you had a nice weekend too. It's raining today, so no more planting, but I'm looking forward to it again tomorrow.

Obsessed with Gardening

“The kiss of sun for pardon, The song of the birds for mirth, One is nearer God's Heart in a garden Than anywhere else on earth” 
Dorothy Frances Gurney

Last week I was obsessed with Totes, OK I still am. Totes and clutches. But with the warming weather, I'm growing an obsession with gardening too.

I've planted my seedlings and my Tomatoes, Peppers, and Basil are doing great. I needed some cilantro, so instead of buying a bunch, for about the some price I got a plant. I thought I can put it out soon. The cat's aren't too happy about this plant thing, because my seedlings are sitting on the table in front of the window that they usually sit on to watch the birds.

Today, if I get the energy and the sun is out as promised, I'm going to go out and pull up all the ground cloth, and turn over the garden. It's time to plant the cool weather seeds, the peas and lettuces and I can even start onions and potatoes. I used to plant potatoes in a plastic garbage can, that I drilled with holes for drainage and light. It worked well, but didn't make it here from NY.

This year I got a fantastic Idea I bought some coffee sacks last summer, that turned out to be much coarser and not printed with nice patterns, than I expected them to be. Very disappointing, but the auction listing did say bags can vary. I thought that those might be really great to grow the potatoes in. I did a little research and I'm not the only one to get that idea. Here is a link on how to make potato planters at Sustainable Eats. I think the bags will look really cute too. Here is a great link with other planter ideas.

I think I might take another bag and grow carrots in it too. Our soil is not wonderful and I can fill them with soil and humus mix so it's nice and soft for the roots to grow. Our soil is OK for peppers, zucchini and tomatoes, and in time the beans I plant will add vital nitrogen.

I'm a Garden fanatic, actually. I could go on about how and why you have to rotate tomatoes and what you need to plant by the beans and why garlic and marigolds are beneficial. I love the black plastic mulch, because I hate to weed, I prefer to spend my time harvesting. For years we've enjoyed rabbits as pets, because they not only are sweet and cuddly, but their droppings don't have to be composted for fertilizer. Just put their cage cleanings right on the garden.

Hope you all get out to the garden this summer.