Gardening

Last year I decided I was going to plant a garden.  My neighbor tilled up a patch next to my shed, and I planted the standards; peppers, tomatoes and beans.  It ended up looking like this...

I think the beans were not planted yet, I put them in later in the summer.  The tomatoes went nuts and got a lot taller.  I thought I had another picture, but this is the best I can do for last year...

My neighbor Dan helped me a lot, learning how to take care of plants, when/how to plant things and lending me his tiller.  Unfortunately, we both live in a development, and though we have decently sized yards, we weren't quite satisfied with the limited space we had for gardening.  So this year, he and I got acquainted with a farmer who had recently bought a property at auction, thus our "other garden."  

We've been growing sweet corn, beans, red beets and cucumbers. 

Just planted three rows of cauliflower and broccoli, and there is now a row of late beans to the left of the cukes.  
 

It's amazing to me that I can cover seeds with dirt, wait a while, and get food.  It takes a little sweat sometimes, but it's easy to see that you get what you put in.  It's also wise to understand where your food comes from.  A lot of folks get upset at paying a certain amount per pound, or per gallon.  I'd like to know if those people are devoted enough to what they're doing with their time to appreciate the things they buy, or do you just collect a paycheck?

Well anyway, I picked about 700 cucumbers last week, and I HATE THEM.  But I love pickles..so here's what I did.  

  I had never canned a thing in my life up until this afternoon, so I enlisted my neighbor Terri's experience. 

 First, you get some jars, and put in pretty much anything you want.  I looked up a recipe for hot garlic pickles and adapted it to what I had laying around.  My recipe also included instructions for the brine (pickle juice), which consisted of vinegar, water and pickling salt.  I'm going for a SOUR and SPICY flavor. 

Once you have all your spices, veggies, cukes or whatever in jars with brine and lids on, you put them on this rack, drop them in the canner and boil them for 15 minutes. 

 

 After they've boiled long enough, you take them out and let them cool.  I neglected to mention earlier that YOU MUST leave about and inch of "headspace" when filling the jars with brine, or they won't seal at this point.  As the jar cools, the contents get slightly smaller, creating a vaccum and sealing the jar.  

I actually ran out of cukes, so I grabbed some chilis and jalepenos to finish filling my jars. 

Try canning.  It's a trip.  Nice weather is in the forecast all week, so watch for some Wheel Horse progress.