Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Icicle Pickles

As the cucumbers continued to thrive in my garden through August, I continued to build on my pickle making resume, trying, again for the first time, Icicle Pickles.  These pickles always have and probably always will remind me of my Grandma.  Mom never really made Icicle Pickles, but Grandma always did  (and still does, despite the fact that she is starting to have memory issues).  Every time there was a family dinner of any kind at Papa and Grandma's house, you could count on their being a big dish of Icicle Pickles on the table.

I hadn't really thought about making Icicle Pickles because I didn't really know anything about the process, except that they took days, possibly even weeks to make.  And the only reason I knew this much was because I remembered Grandma sending us to the basement day after day with a big wooden spoon to stir the icicle pickles in the crock.  So, I hadn't even entertained the thought of icicle pickles because I like things with immediate results and I didn't have a crock to make them in.  Then one day, my friend, Renelle, mentioned on Facebook that she'd spent the afternoon bottling Icicle Pickles with her mom and I suddenly had an urge to make some.  After a few comments back and forth on Facebook, I had her mother's recipe in my inbox and had found out that my mother-in-law had a crock that I could use!

On August 31st, I started my first ever batch of Icicle Pickles.  And yesterday, September 13th, I bottled them.  Yes, folks, it take 14 days to make a batch of these pickles!  Check your calendar before you start and make sure you have the time to commit to this process!  And if you have never had Icicle Pickles, don't let the 14 days scare you away.  They are a lovely sweet, pickle, well worth the time and effort they require!

24 cups of cucumbers, cut with seeds removed - Day 1

Cucumbers after 14 days of "pickling" . . . ready to be bottled.

Finished Product

As will most of my recent forays in domesticity, I modified the recipe to suit my needs, mostly because my crock wasn't big enough to hold as many cucumbers as the recipe called for.  Here is my modified version, with the original amounts in brackets.

Icicle Pickles

24 cups cucumber, cut with seeds removed (2 gallons - 32 cups)
2 cups coarse salt
1 tbsp alum

Syrup:
5 cups vinegar (2 quarts - 8 cups)
8 cups sugar (14 cups)
4 tbsp pickling spice

Instructions:

Day 1:  Cut cucumbers, remove seeds.  Place in crock, cover with 2 cups coarse salt.  Add boiling water to cover cucumbers.  Cover crock.
Day 2: Stir.
Day 3: Stir.
Day 4: Stir.
Day 5: Stir.
Day 6: Stir.
Day 7: Stir.
Day 8: Drain liquid off.  Cover with fresh boiling water for 24 hours.
Day 9: Drain liquid off.  Add 1 tsp alum.  Cover with fresh boiling water for 24 hours.
Day 10:  Mix syrup and bring to a boil.  Drain pickles and cover with boiling syruup.
Day 11: Drain syrup off, into a pot, boil and pour back over pickles.
Day 12: Drain syrup off, into a pot, boil and pour back over pickles.
Day 13: Drain syrup off, into a pot, boil and pour back over pickles.
Day 14: Drain syrup off, into a pot, boil.  Put pickles into jars and fill with boiling syrup.  Close bottles and can for 15 minutes.

Thanks to Mrs. Oulette for her recipe!

Monday, September 13, 2010

Week 23 - Sept 4/5 & Week 24 - Sept 10/11 - Flower Gardens

The flower beds haven't changed since my last post.  With being on holidays at the beginning of September and going to my brother's wedding this past weekend, they have been pretty well neglected!  I really need to start to get some fall cleaning done in them soon.  And I am hoping to get some more fall bulbs planted this year.  One can never have enough tulips, daffodils and crocuses first thing in the spring!

There are a few things still giving me a little bit of colour, but I really don't have much this time of year.  I would love to have some fall mums, but I have never had any luck with them surviving winter.  Maybe I'll get one and try again!

Back Garden . . .

Side Garden . . . 

Side Garden . . .

Malva Zebrina is still going, which is really strange because it was much earlier than this last year!

Purple Leafed Sedum

Bumble bee having a Sedum snack.

Green Leafed Sedum

Burgundy Galardia . . . I can't believe how well this is doing and how long it has been blooming for a newly planted perennial!  Although it still needs to be moved because it is too tall for the spot it's in!


Week 23 - Sept 4/5 & Week 24 - Sept 11/12 -Vegetable Garden

Nothing much to say again . . . everything is slowly dying back as we slowly make our way into fall.

 I still have to dig the potatoes and there are quite a few ripe tomatoes that need to be picked.  

I am hoping to get enough tomatoes to make at least one batch of salsa this week or on the weekend.  And maybe get some into the freezer, but it wasn't the best year for them.  Maybe next year will be better.

Lettuce has all gone to seed, so it will probably just get used up as bunny food.  I have decided not to bother with romaine lettuce again next year, the red romaine didn't form heads at all, it was just the same as the red leaf lettuce that I planted and the green started to form heads and then suddenly shot up really tall and went to seed before it was big enough to use. 

Vegetable Garden . . . slowly shifting into fall mode!

Tomatoes . . . 

Lettuce . . . gone to seed.



The Herb Garden

The Herb Garden has gone a little wild and crazy too!  But that's OK, I'll just trim everything back before winter and it will all start off nice and small again next year.   I didn't get any scarlet runners this year.  Next year, I will have to find a new location or just not bother with them.  

Also, I think that it is time to rip everything out of the thing and start over with new soil.  When I started this garden, I covered the bottom of it with plastic and put it down on top of grass.  It has been a few years and there is some grass coming up through the plastic and although not a lot of it actually comes up through the top of the soil as grass, almost the entire thing is a mess of little tiny roots growing through the soil.  So, in the spring, I would like to dig all the perennial herbs and get rid of all the soil that is currently in it and fill it back up with manure from my grandfather's farm.  But we'll see what happens in the spring!


Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Week 22 - August 28/29 - Flower Beds

My flower beds are looking sad with autumn coming.  And with a bit of neglect, they are in desperate need of some TLC, lots of grass and weeds to pull and lots of things to be trimmed before fall really comes.  But there seriously just aren't enough hours in the day or even in the week these days.  And considering that I am away on vacation for the rest of the week, I don't expect any of it will get done before the next update.  But you never know, maybe the garden cleaning fairy will stop by while I am away and have them in tip top shape when I came home!

Back Garden

Side Garden

Side Garden

Malva Zebrina

Purple leafed sedum

Purple leafed sedum

Busy bumble on the sedum

Sedum

Hen and chick with lots of little babies





Week 22 - August 28/29 Vegetable Garden

I can tell that is coming to the end of garden season with one look at my garden.  The potato plants and onions have died back and are just waiting to be dug.  The lettuce is going to seed.  The cucumbers are turning yellow.  It is all somewhat depressing.

I spent some time in the garden today, pulling some weeds and grass that were starting to take over the world that is my garden.  I picked a couple of baskets of cucumbers and started a batch of icicle pickles and I am hoping that after my holidays this week, I'll have enough ripe tomatoes for a batch of salsa.  I know that I will have enough beets to do another couple batches of pickled beets in the coming weeks.

My sad looking veggie garden . . .

Potatoes . . . dead and ready to be dug . . .

Lettuce is going to seed . . . at least the bunnies will still eat it!

Yellow cucumbers . . . too much heat and sun the last few days, we need some rain!  But they still work for pickles.

Parsley is still looking GREAT!  Any suggestions on what I can do with A LOT of parsley?

Mystery pepper . . . I am sure they were all supposed to be regular bell peppers . . .


Monster zucchini . . . 5 pounds each!  Made 9 bags (3cups each) of grated zucchini for the freezer!

Monster zucchini!

Lots of cucumbers for pickles!

24 cups of cut up cucumbers for icicle pickles.

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Week 21 - August 21/22

I really don't have much to report this week, nor do I really have any photos.  I didn't get to do anything in the flower beds or gardens this weekend because it was rainy and miserable.  

I did use some fresh basil in spaghetti sauce this week and it was super yummy!  Amazing the difference it makes when it is fresh!

Of course, today, I did pickled beets.  There are lots more cucumbers almost ready to be used.  Not sure what I am going to do with them, I was thinking about Icicle Pickles, but they take two weeks and if I start them now, they won't be finished by the time we leave for a little holiday.  So, maybe when we come back, if there are still cucumbers.  I will probably have to do something with some of them in the meantime.  Maybe some relish.

Flower beds are pretty much in fall mode.  I really need to do some dead heading and I need to find some fall flowers to plant because the gardens are looking kind of blah.

Five pound zucchini!  I will be grating this one up and freezing it for zucchini bread!



Pickled Beets

I was at it again today!  This time, making pickled beets.  Again, I searched the internet and created my own recipe based on bits and pieces of the recipes that I found!

Beets . . . fresh from the garden, clean and ready to cook . . . 

Boiling . . . 

Cooked, cooling and waiting to be peeled . . . 

Peeled . . . 

Sliced . . . 

Pickling spices . . . this is an infant Nibbler* and is so much easier to use for spices that need to be removed than fumbling with cheese cloth and sting!  I found this tip on the internet, but can't find it again to give credit, but it works really well!

Beet slices in brine.

Finished product . . . 5 pints of pickled beets.

Pickled Beets

4 quarts of beets
1 1/2 cups vinegar
3 cups water
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 tbsp mixed pickling spices

Clean and boil beets.
Let cool.
Peel and slice/cut as desired.  Place in large saucepan.
Mix vinegar, water and sugar, pour over beets.
Put pickling spices in cheese cloth pouch or infant Nibbler so that they can be removed.
Boil for 10 minutes.
Pack in hot jars.
Can for 15 minutes in boiling water.

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Bread And Butter Pickles

Today's foray into domesticity (if that is even a word, but I like the way it sounds, so I'm going to say that it is!) was Bread and Butter Pickles.  Again, I have help Mom and probably grandma make these many time, years ago, but this was the first time I've attempted it on my own.  I searched the internet for a recipe and found many.  Most of which had the basics that I remembered and some had things in them that I knew were never in the ones Mom made.  So, I pulled together the basics from a few recipes and came up with one of my own.  (See end of post for recipe.)

Sliced cucumber and onion sitting for 3 hours with salt and ice.

Seasonings used, with sugar and vinegar to create the brine.

Bread and Butter Pickle Brine.

Cucumber and onion cooking in brine.

Finished product . . . 4 quarts of Bread and Butter Pickles.

Bread and Butter Pickles

4 quarts cucumbers
6 medium onions 
2 peppers (optional)
1/3 cup pickling salt
ice

Slice and layer in container with salt and ice in each layer.
Let sit for 3 hours.

4 cups sugar
3 cups vinegar
1 1/2 tsp tumeric
1 1/2 tsp celery seed
2 tbsp mustard seed

Mix together in a large pot and heat to boiling.
Drain cucumbers and remove ice but DO NOT rinse.
Add to brine and bring to boil.
Cook for 5 minutes.
Ladle into hot jars.  Put on lids.
Process in boiling water for 15 minutes.

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Week 19 - August 7/8 & Week 20 - August 14/15 - Flowers

Raindrops on my Crimson Maple . . . just cause I like pics of raindrops on pretty things!

Raindrop on a daylily.

White Phlox

Despite the fact that I haven't planted snap dragons in my flower beds in about three years, every year, I still have a couple pop up that have seeded themselves down.

Some violas that just popped up recently.

One lonely blossom on this poor little clematis.  Not sure why it is having such a hard time growing this year, but it is pretty sad looking.  Hope that it survives the winter!

Rubekia

Rubekia

This is the galardia that my mom gave me for my birthday . . . it has gotten HUGE!  And is much taller than the tag suggested it would be!  It really needs to find a better spot to live before next year . . . and hopefully before it get snagged by the lawn tractor!