July 25, 2014

Jim brought in another big haul last night and I've been spending most of the day getting it all put up.  We had a 5 gallon bucket of cukes (plus a little bucket more) from too big to finger sized, that I love to make dill pickles from.  I used the smallest for dills, 3 qts; next size for bread and butter's, 3 qts.; next size, chunked for Caddie Pickles, named for a friend of Aunt Inez', 3qts., and I started a batch of cinnamon pickles with the very biggiest ones.  I saved a dozen or more just for eating.  I also put up 4 qts. of beet pickles and had enough for lunch.  My kitchen isn't in nearly as big of a mess as it could be.  I tried to clean up a bit and rest after every batch.  I made lunch in the middle of all this pickling, too.  We had a "homegrown lunch".  We had egg salad with avocado served with tomato on a lettuce leaf, beets, zucchini patties, and cucumber salad. There were three of us.

I have a gallon of beans to snip that I would like to do yet tonight, but I am saving the rest of the squash for tomorrow.
I made 4 qts. of applesauce a couple days ago.  I was making applesauce the way I learned how from my mother.  Wash and quarter the apples taking out any bad spots, worm holes or bug bites, cook them and run them through a sieve.  I poured the sauce back in my dutch oven to sweeten it, when it hit me--I can't taste how sweet it is!!  I could tell the salt I put in made a difference in the tartness, and luckily Lynette was home so I could use her as my tester.
So, for future reference.  I had my dutch oven nearly full of apple sauce, and I put in five 1/4 cup scoops of sugar that were just a bit more than level and a teaspoon of salt.  I should measure more definitely, but sadly, so much depends on the kind of apples that are used.  Sigh.  I guess I will just have to make it when someone else is around to taste it for me.

Our garden is looking pretty good for this time of the year.  You will notice the weedlessness.  Of course, we never take pictures when the weeds are hiding the plants like they have for most of the years we've had a garden.