From Jane’s garden-with love….

Eating, Preserving, and Saving
Hi Everyone!
 
It’s a busy time of year in the life of a gardener… Some days and weeks I have a hard time keeping up! We eat bountifully of the fresh fruits and vegetables that we bring into the house. I have plenty to be neighborly with and to give to family and friends. It feels like building community… one picking at a time. 
 
Saturday mornings are crucial for getting a jump on the weekend. There’s lots of gardening work to do especially after the work-a-day world of outside work. With the extreme heat this year, I think we’re at over 40 days of triple digit temperatures, the garden has required extreme efforts made to keep all the plants alive. The ones that have survived, have been tested in production and in ripening. The tomatoes, for example, have been getting sun burn; the green pole beans flower, but yield no green beans. I’m hoping if they last into the cooler months (like starting in September) maybe they’ll be able to produce green beans then. 
 
We’ve been enjoying quite a number of juicy cantaloupes so far and they are wonderful—sweet and juicy! I’ve also collected lots and lots of seeds from just three fruits so far. It’s quite a healthy vine, so I’m not sure how many we’ll end up yielding from the plants. The universe is bountiful, though, because even though I may have planted only 18 or so seeds, I’ve been able to gather hundreds of seeds back from the ones I’ve picked so far. These seeds haven’t been tampered with, so they’ll be good for the future.
 
Yesterday, I dug carrots and beets; picked cucumbers, green and jalapeno peppers, and tomatoes. Then I composted all the extraneous greens and green waste, scraped the mud from off me and the shovel and pitchfork, and washed and trimmed all the vegetables. It was a delight to witness. Here… take a peek.
 

 
With this much food coming in all at once, it forces me to address the obvious… preservation. My son’s piano teacher gave me a refrigerator pickle recipe that keeps for six months. It’s easy to follow and the results are delicious. I’m on my third batch already. Buying containers. Stocking up the fridge; and giving some to friends who remember those tasty treats from years gone by.
 

 
I’ll include the recipe here… from Janice…


Sweet Refrigerator Pickles
6 C sliced cukes (don’t peel)
1 C sliced onions
1 sliced green pepper
2 T pickling salt
2 C sugar
1 C vinegar
1 t celery seed
1 t mustard seed
 
Mix thinly sliced cukes with onions, peppers, and pickling salt; cover with water. Cover and let stand at room temperature for about 24 hours. Cukes will turn slightly olive green and liquid will be cloudy and slightly bubbly.
 
Drain off water.
Mix sugar, vinegar, celery and mustard seeds and pour over cukes. Cover and store in refrigerator. You can use glass jars with lids, if you want. I use plastic storage containers.
Will keep up to 6 months to a year in the fridge and still be crisp and flavorful.
You can make a little more dressing, if needed, because the cukes need to be covered.
 
The tomatoes are ripening despite the extreme heat. We planted a mix of different types, so it’s quite delightful to see the results. Most are heirloom tomatoes, although not all. I’m saving whatever seeds I can and we’ll see what ends up growing and what doesn’t next year. They are certainly juicy and sweet and delicious—a great reason to get into gardening if you aren’t doing it already.
 

 

Here you can see the juice just dripping from the tomato slices…
Now that I’ve gotten into seed saving I look at each tomato differently. I think to myself, are these seeds I should be saving? Look how luscious those seeds look!
 
Speaking of seed saving, here’s a batch of swiss chard seed. Looking forward to planting those in the fall again.
 

 
It’s important to pay attention to what you are picking for seeds when doing so, so you can properly label the packages and know what you are going to grow the next season.
 
Today I went out and bought some Mason jars with lids. I’m thinking about preserving some sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil and such. I’m looking for a good recipe for this if anyone has one, feel free to pass it on.
And in the meantime…
 
Bon appetit!