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I've really been slipping on posting Midwest Gardening this year. It's out there in it's bountiful glory, well that's the weeds. LOL!
After years of drought conditions our garden is exploding this year in green (lean on produce though except for CUKES), and grass is crazy long and thick. Of course so are are the weeds. We have big trash cans of weeds and branches every week.
This morning I pulled weeds in one 4' x16' foot bed and filled a medium garbage can to the top. Hiding in that mess were 7 ripe Japanese Eggplant..NUM. Definitely on the menu tomorrow.
I've never had such huge Tomato plants in recent years. Hoping they continue to produce, tomatoes have been small, and I've been picking them at the orange stage before the critters sample and ripening them in the kitchen window.
This week Garden production was a bit of everything.
Early in the week I did 4 pints of Yellow Banana Pepper Pickles with onions.
We had meals with tomatoes, green beans, sweet banana peppers, and yellow summer squash. I also did a huge jug of Overnite Refrigerator Dills, post and recipe HERE.
And a big container of slightly Fresh Sweet Pickles with onions for the refrigerator. Easy post/recipe here for refrigerator those Fresh Sweet or Dill easy Danish Pickles.
Our Cucumbers have been large and firm, totally delicious, I hope they keep going.
This was just one day this week. I picked three times and about the same amounts, but add Eggplants (7) and one Golden Summer Squash, the first this year.
Some things are very late this year as the plants shut down during the very hot days.
So here's a tip for too many Cherry tomatoes. I lay these cut in half on parchment paper, shiny side up, and roast them at 220 until they are all curled up and cooked. Several (HOURS). I've tried to hurry them but you end up with some burnt and lots of weeping.
They shrink, but MULTIPLY in flavor, and I slipped them into bags for the freezer. These SO enhance the flavors and make great additions to casseroles, or with/on fish/poultry/chops. I've added them to watery tomatoes in canning, say a 1/2 cup to a pint and then processed...OMGOODNESS-- GOODNESS!
All the rest of my tomatoes were cooked down into this basic sauce, skins and all with sliced onions, seasonings, and fresh Basil and Oregano. I puree almost everything with my Immersion Blender...and oh, NUM. We only got five pints, but what a time saver and more delicious than buying a $4.79 jar full of sugar, color and preservatives.
I wash my jars and heat them up in the oven at 220 degrees one hour before filling, so they don't shock when you spoon bubbling sauce into them and are placed in a boiling canner.
Jar lids and rims are boiled to apply hot to the filled jars. This is your preservative I add 1 tsp lemon juice for color and 1/2 tsp canning salt (preservative) to my tomato products in pt. jars and seal. Double for quarts, but then place in Boiling water bath canner for 30 minutes after it comes back to a boil. Remove quickly and cover with towels. Until they are cool enough to uncover. (This prevents cracking of glass from temperature shock).
Here's my messy counter setup. Center is where the covered hot tray of empty jars goes. Left, the kettle of sauce or pickles, middle where the jars are filled, right, a soft place to clean glass edges and apply hot lids/rims. Back right cork is for the boiling lids pot.
Our 36" x 62" island is perfect for just about everything. And, the stove is right behind me on the right and the jars are popped into the canner rack as I fill them.
Besides all this, I had 24 cups of cucumbers and 8 cups of onions, salted and iced were on the side counter. Hubby replenished our Mustard seed, Celery Seed, Celery Salt, and few others. I had cleaned the spice cabinet and turntable early in the week, which is now full again. We cook over 90% of our own meals from scratch and only eat out maybe, once a week.
Here are the steps to making the Bread Butter Pickles.
Trim the ends of your cucumbers and slice them 1/8" or so. Here are the Salted cumcumbers and Onions with the added Quarts of ice cubes mixed in....then covered and let sit for 3 hours and Drain.
Here are the rest of the cucumbers iced and salted waiting to be drained and then simmered in a combination with of sugar, cider vinegar and herbs and spices. NUM!.
Best Ever Bread and Butter Pickles (combined recipe from 3 different sources) makes 6-7 pints.
16 cups (4 qts) of thinly sliced cucumbers.
1 1/2 cups of sliced onions (about 2 medium)
2 large garlic cloves trimmed and cleaned.
1/3 cup of canning (non iodized) salt
2 quarts of chopped ice or ice cubes
4 1/2 cups of sugar
1 1/2 tsp of turmeric
2 tsp of celery seed
2 Tbsp of mustard seed
1 1/2 tsp of white pepper (gives a tiny kick)
3 cups of apple cider vinegar
In a very large bowl or enamel pan, add sliced cucumbers, sliced onions, whole garlic, mix everything with canning salt. Add ice and stir one more time, cover and let set for 1 1/2 hours, stir again thoroughly and cover and leave for another 1 1/2 hours.
Drain for at least an hour in large colanders or anything that will let the water drip off.
Meanwhile, prepare the sugar, spices and apple cider vinegar in a large pot, put on low simmer, when all ingredients are blended and lightly bubbling.
Prepare your cleaned 6-7 jars and heat them up in the oven at 220 degrees one hour before filling, so they don't shock when you spoon boiling pickles into them and are placed in a boiling canner. Lids and rings are boiled on the stove at the same time, this is crucial. Use a jar collar while filling jars, wipe jar edges clean with wet cloth and add lid and twist rims on snug. Place in boiling water bath canner and process 30 minutes after again brought to boil. Remove one at a time on waterproof tray, cover all the jars with at least two layers of towels on all sides and leave sit. You should hear pings when the lids cool and the rims shrink tight on the jars.
Non-sealed lids can be kept in the refrigerator and used first or reprocessed again in a waterbath. (rare)
Fresh pickles from your garden are so delicious, these make fabulous hostess gifts or fun little presents for friends.
The rest of this week found me in my totally trashed studio. When I'm productive it gets really messy in there. So many different pieces and projects going on at once.
I finally found a very old library book (early 1940's) while thrifting. Of all titles, Pollyanna...this is pre-Disney...in all it's original sticky sweet glory. How fun. Except if I open it anywhere, there is a quote...that triggers my imagination. I had this piece sitting there not knowing where it was going, and I saw an unknown world and a bit of a path to the light...perfect for Pollyanna, so I deco-paged the quote,
"Polly come---here!"
Pollyanna's eyes widened a little.
"Would you rather go there?"
I imbedded the quote in layers, and tints, and bit of paper looking like a butterfly.
If you look close in the piece...you can see golden footsteps on a road...a road to where?
Maybe it is to THERE?
.
My Mather Creative Mindfulness class was structured with limited colors (3 in the same family) and filling in Triangles that have centers and lines to the centers to create pyramids of sort, and give them a three dimensional effect. I used some crappy sketchbook paper and my watercolor gel sticks, did the edges and then watered the marks into the spaces. My hands hurt too much from pulling weeds to fill in with markers, and this was easy, scribble and water. I totally love waterbased-gel sticks. Like crayons, but they instantly break down with a brush and water, and they are so fun on wet paper, like sliding down a water slide IN COLOR!
It's an interesting exercise, I may cut a stencil of something similar which would be great for collage and other paper ideas.
My Acrylic Painting class was on week 5...and they were doing the foregrounds of a designated subject. I really finished my painting for that class two weeks ago...so I fiddled with some torn paper collage while watching. Our yard is full of Tiger Lilies and sunflowers. I had yellow washed the background on this watercolor paper and I worked on top of that tint.
I love tearing paper...even to actually fit certain spaces...It's messy though. I'm working on watercolor paper on top of the shiny side of freezer paper, which is a great surface for protecting the artwork and the table, if I plan on using some alcohol inks or markers.
Here you can see a bits of acrylic paint on the watercolor paper, and tape at each side.
The greens are bits of glued painted tissue. I'm using watered down Satin Modge-Podge as glue for this piece. When I finally finish it will be sealed with Matte Acrylic Sealer.
I also worked on more collage papers. I had purchased some stencils and was playing with them and a sponge applicator...super quick way to stencil.
More about these collage papers in my next post.
What have YOU been Creating, Growing, Cooking, Reading or DOING?
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Dills
