Drew Lawson wrote:
> songbird writes:

>> a little later than some years due to rains/cloudy
>>weather, but finally was able to put up 12 quarts
>>last night.
>
> Everything about my garden slipped by 4-6 weeks this year, so my
> cucumbers are only about a half inch long right now. I'm hoping
> for small dill pickles and a batch of dill relish this year.
>
> The cucumber crop has been a bust the last 2-3 years (all my fault),
> so I don't even know whether I have the number for vines I need.
> But that's part of the garden adventure.

we planted 15 plants this year, it is way more than we'll
use over the long term, but if you want to have enough to
do 10-20 quarts per batch every 4-7 days or so...


>> the only changes this year from my standard recipe
>>is that i'm making the brine a bit stronger and my
>>brother wanted more salt in his.
>
> I've been wandering through Joy of Pickling recently, and I'm having
> some trouble settling on which recipes to try. Past batches were
> from the BBB.

i don't get fancy as we just like simple dill
pickles. no spices or other things added.


> Definitely plan some pickled green tomatoes, since
> I planted my usual tomatoe crop but still have 2 years worth of
> sauce canned. I'm sure I'll can a batch of sauce this year, but
> probably not 2 batches like usual.

i can't tell yet how the tomatoes are doing, they
look pretty healthy but i don't see a lot of fruits
on them yet and perhaps we won't have that big of a
crop. we'll see. with 15 plants i would normally
expect around 100 or so quarts not counting what we
eat and give away. this year might be quite a
different story (different variety and the weather).

good luck!


songbird