Got five lbs of cuke spears soaking in a brine bath in the crock as I
write this. Cut off the blossom ends, also the vine ends, quartered
them. They're National Pickling cukes, developed for pickles naturally.

I'm making Dill Pickle Spears from the Joy of Pickling book, probably
end up with four or five quart jars full. The next batch of cukes plus
onions and bell peppers will be made into relish. Made the recipe last
year and we, including all the descendants, enjoyed it rhinocerously. I
think the recipe I used came from the Big Ball book but the one I'm
looking at right now is from So Easy To Preserve, looks to about the
same so the relish should end up about the same.

We're harvesting sweet chiles and cukes about every other day, still no
slicing tomatoes though, only the cherries. The !@#$%^ red birds are
pecking the green toms so we put the bird netting over the tomato plants
this morning and over the fig tree, the figs are just starting to ripen.
Still have fig jam from last year so am wondering maybe fig wine this
year. Who knows?

At any rate, it is the hot season, supposed to be 94F today and 95 or
more tomorrow, no rain in sight either.

What's everyone doing this week?