Pickles !!

On Friday, we picked our first 5 cucumbers. And they were yummy !!

On Friday evening we received 1/4" of rain. And on Saturday afternoon, we receieved 1/2" of rain. And on Saturday evening we received another 1/2" of rain. Now, cucumbers MUST like rain water better than our well water (via sprinkler) because on Monday morning, we picked three 5-gallon buckets of cucumbers -- and we did not even pick the medium or small ones !! (Once sorted, we had one bucket of "blemished" cucs - we ate some, sliced some for the refrigerator, and tossed the rest into the compost pile to feed next year's garden.)

YIKES !!

And with that many cucumbers, the day quickly becomes a Pickle Making Day !!

Charlotte Mason would likely be pleased to see such a "practical" skill being learned. And with all of the details (measuring ingredients, following instructions exactly, food safety, kitchen skills, and more), this is a great Handicraft, and is quite a broad educational experience too.


We made ALL of these pickles -- Kosher Dills -- we made spears and hamburger slices.

We have yet to make Pickle relish (dill and sweet), and we also have to make Bread-n-Butter pickles.

After that -- well, I am not sure what we are going to do with the bumper crop of cucumbers that we are apparently going to have this year. So, since a garden is best when shared, I sent an email to local friends offering to call them when we have more (many or a few). And we are considering the idea of setting up a little Produce Stand along the road out front to sell the extras (the children REALLY liked this idea !). If anyone has any "ideas" along this line, we would love the suggestions !

And this morning, I am "almost" nervous about going out the the garden -- I just KNOW those medium and small cucumbers are much bigger today -- and I am not sure that I am up to making more pickles just now. HA !!

Thank you Lord for the bumper crop -- and for the opportunity to teach our children how to make pickles. We had a grand time.