Garden Wealth

Bread and butter pickles and more cukes.



The pile from the garden grows every day.



My over 50 year old pickle.

 The garden is doing great right now.  I think this is the best part of summer up here.  We have cucumbers coming out our ears....well, that would look pretty silly, I know, but you know what I mean. I do have a pickle in a 1950's Listerine Bottle that my Grandfather grew for me when I was little....just think...it's an antique pickle....it's over 50 years old!  I decided to dig out a couple of my " canning cook books" and see what I could do with all of the cucumbers.  I thought making " bread and butter pickles" would be the best.  Sooooo, down to the basement I went and got into my canning cabinet .  ( it's so nice to have it all organized and in one place to where I don't have to dig for stuff)  I brought up seven pint jars, the hot water bath pot, lids, rings and my pickling salt.  I set out, cutting half of the cucumbers that I had picked.  By the end of the day, I had seven pints of the best bread and butter pickles you'd ever want.  Mom would be so proud of me. :-)  Since then, I've been to the garden to pick again and had just as many cukes that I had before I made the pickles.  They just appear over night, I tell ya.  So, I am in the middle of making another batch of pickles.  I'll finish them off later this afternoon because you have to let them sit with the salt on them for at least three hours.  Christina ( my German Mom) sent me an article from the St. Pete Times about how awful the tomatoes are that are grown in Florida.  I thought the ones that we used to go pick were pretty good but after reading about all the chemicals that they put on them, it makes me shudder to think of how many I've eaten over my life time.  All I know is, I'm glad that I can grow my own now and they taste ten times better.  Having a garden is only one of the perks that you get when you live where there are four seasons.  I still haven't decided which season is my favorite.  I think it's the one that just happens to be at the time I'm thinking about it.