Trying Something New
Well the garden is going better than I expected it to this year. One of my goals was to do a better job at saving what I harvest.
Cucumbers, cucumbers, and more cucumbers. We can only eat so many cucumbers before we turn into one! Is there any other way to preserve cucumbers other than pickling? We enjoy our share of pickles, but not enough to make it worth canning a large amount.
That was another thing. I did not want to can. Now I can't remember if I stumbled upon the mentioning of refrigerator pickles, or if I just looked it up on my own. Either way, I found a nice, easy recipe that I wanted to give a try. I only did two batches (enough to use up my dill) in case they didn't turn out all that great. My son keeps asking to try them, but I keep telling him he has to wait until next week.
Another issue is the zucchini. Last year I froze shredded zucchini. It was..fine, but I didn't use it up like I thought I would. In fact, I had to hurry up and use what I had before the fresh stuff started coming. I'd like to freeze some sliced zucchini this year. However, I'm just not sure we're going to get an overabundance.
What I did try with a few we had so far was make zucchini spaghetti. I was quite thrilled with how well it turned out. Saute in duck fat and add ground pepper and salt, and I must say it tasted better than regular pasta! My son even asked for seconds!
Once I have enough ripened tomatoes, the next project will be making my own spaghetti sauce. Hopefully it turns out!
I just made my own jar of refrigerator pickles today, for the first time ever! Funny coincidence. I hope they turn out well. I added a garden jalapeño, some dill, red pepper flakes, salt, water, and of course vinegar. Let me know how yours turn out!
Oo that sounds spicy. I just used water, salt, sugar, dill, and garlic. You'll have to say if yours turned out. Mine will be ready on Monday.
It will turn out, your sauce.
How do you make those refrigerator pickles? Those look interesting. And if they are easy, I might actually do it.
This is the website with the recipe I used. Very simple!
https://selfproclaimedfoodie.com/easy-refrigerator-dill-pickles/
Howdy hebrewhousewife! that sauce is going to be excellent. I've never had zucchini spaghetti but that sounds wonderful too, anything to get away from the refined white flour. Why did you pick the tomatoes so green?
I picked the tomatoes green because I knew if I waited until they ripened on the vine, I would probably lose them. Sure enough, our garden is a wet mess right now! I can only get the plants on the outside edge. I picked the tomatoes while they were green so I was guaranteed to have some! They're slowly turning red on the counter.
And the flavor is the same by ripening on the counter I assume? That's good planning, especially since you've had rain there, is that why it's a wet mess?
That I could not tell you. I'm no gardening expert! But yes, we've gotten a lot of much needed rain in the last week. It should be dry for a little while now, but we're getting into our rainy season here.
Hey could you help a gal out? I'm trying to boost my post using esteem, but I don't know how to fill out the post box. Where it says author/permlink.
Howdy hebrewhousewife! But the wheat harvest was finished before the rain came?
Are you using your phone for esteem?
Almost. They just have about half of one field left. Not sure how long it will be before they get it off.
Yes, I primarily use my phone.
Howdy hebrewhousewife! Sorry I missed this reply last night. I don't use a cell phone so I have esteem on my desktop but it's just like posting with steemit. So I don't know what you're referring to. But do you know Melinda? She's one of their main curators and can answer your questions. I'd go to one of her posts and say that I referred you. She's melinda010100.