Birds, Poorman's Bouquet and Midwest Gardening 2024 Bounty

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It's Mid July 2024, after several years of drought to extreme drought our NE Illinois area, we have now been deluged this year like much of the country. Very Hot and Wet here in Chicagoland. Upside the trees and bushes are lush and green, green, green.

The long table in the front of the livingroom looks out to the front yard and several bird feeders. We always watch from here and keep our bird books handy for identification.

The rain has been so frequent, you have to dash outside for anything, grab some produce, dump saucers or pick a few flowers, before the next rain.

This is the last magazine subscription coming to our home. Many years ago I eliminated ALL of our other subscriptions, to save paper and the planet---this one is the last subscription to run out. Birds and Blooms is a very cheery magazine, with fabulous photos of birds across the country and information on how to attract birds and their habits.

This is what I call unconscious decorating. I cover my dark wood furniture in summer with lighter vintage tablecloths, the magazine is here with our special bird identification printouts. This stuff has just sort of landed here...over the last month and suddenly it's a 

vignette. 

The thrifted pot  I found last month holds bird books from my childhood with notations inside from 1953-4 of birds seen then. Oddly enough with our climate warming, we are seeing different kinds birds now... different than 60 years ago and others seem to be gone. I haven't seen an Oriole in YEARS.

My Philodendron plant needs repotting, it's scraggly. I moved it from the bedroom to here hoping the light will be better. I dashed outside yesterday and cut the drooping flowers from the last storm and put them in my French enameled coffeepot.

My Poorman's Bouquet: Hosta leaves, Lilies, tops of blooming Hostas, Giant Sedum heads, Coreopsis, Phlox are so rich in colors and a sprig of Sweet Potato Vine that was broken and I'm trying grow roots on.  Lilies don't last long, but keep blooming from their buds  if you just pull the expired blooms off. This bouquet should last a week.

It's really an exuberant display, and makes me smile.  My Danish bird figurines are collected on the table and corralled in a little wagon that I found months ago in a thrift store. I imagine I've tossed some seed in there and they are just visiting.

In the kitchen...

I also dashed into the garden and grabbed cucumbers, two HUGE Green Peppers, the last of the Snow Peas, the first of the Broccoli, and a tiny Zucchini. 

We've had a half dozen Zucchini's from our three plants this year already. Everything grows overnight it seems.

I put up a gallon go overnite Dill Pickles recipe here: OVERNIGHT DILL PICKLES on Thursday...so delicious and crunchy, and a large container of Danish  Pickles, recipe here: FRESH DANISH DILL OR SWEET PICKLES. I did the sweet version. 

The heat and the rainwater are making some things especially (cucumbers prolific) and others seem to be at a standstill. Tomatoes are huge but refusing to turn red. It's already late for tomatoes to begin turning with all this heat.

The last of my potted peas. I may get one more picking, and I plant to do another pot at the end of the month---in a bigger pot that won't blow over. Hopefully I can start them in the greenhouse if it isn't too hot to protect from the voracious critters we have this year. 

I'm going to try to make  a homemade critter spray...and I will let you know how that works!

See you again Soon!

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Garden Food: Senf Gherke or Slippery Jims

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Senfgurken (Danish) or Slippery Jim's

oldnewgreenredo

These were always on the table in my childhood. Perfect on summer sandwiches, a lightly sweet pickle made from overripe or large cucumbers.  

You basically use the outside of the cucumbers and not the center seeded parts.  

I did a nice batch of dills, but so many of the cucumbers were too big, or too round, so I peeled them and 'gutted' the inside if they had large seeds. 

oldnewgreenredo

This is a medium Pyrex bowl so about 5-6 cups of thin sliced peeled cucumbers.

The slices are soaked in cold water and I added about 2 tsp of canning salt and stir. Cover and let sit out overnight, covered with a cloth. Rinse very well in the morning and let drain.

Make your brine:

2 cups of white vinegar

1 cup of water

1 cup of sugar

1/2 tsp of Yellow Mustard seeds

1-2 tsp. of pickling spices

4 whole cloves

You will also need canning salt 1/2 tsp per pint

and 1/2 slice of a medium onion per pint jar

oldnewgreenredo

Bring your brine to a boil, add the drained and rinsed cucumbers. 

Bring back to a boil, then time 3 minutes to finish cooking the cucumbers.

oldnewgreenredo

Have your clean lids in a boiling hot water bath, and your clean jars in a 220 degree oven.

oldnewgreenredo

Fill your hot jars with the hot cucumbers, add salt, 1/2 slice of onion and then fill with extra brine to within a 1/2" of the top.

Wipe your rims, and seal with sterile lids. Tighten and cover jars with clean cloths to cool.

If your jars don't seal, keep in refrigerator, if they seal store in a cool dark place.

oldnewgreenredo

Classic slippery cucumbers perfect with any cold meat open-faced sandwich or appetizer. This is my favorite on cold turkey, chicken or sliced roasted pork. 

oldnewgreenredo

This made 2 pint jars and also a 1/2 jar to eat right away. One to eat and two on the shelf, perfect!

 They really are lovely. And a nod to my 

Danish heritage!

Nyd og Spis!

Enjoy and Eat!

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FRESH Danish Dill or Sweet Pickles

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Our Green Garden was so late, but, we were excited when the cucumbers finally started the end of July. Hubby was enthusiastic and planted four different kinds of seeds. It's so nice to use your own cucumbers, free of pesticides and harmful chemicals. 

And cucumbers that are fresh and not waxed, like the store ones--last far longer in this recipe.

Here's a couple of different ones, the fat one is kinda big, but very fresh, so perfect for fresh pickles. This is my Danish grandmother's recipe for Agurksalat, or Cucumber salad.   

Very few ingredients, fresh cucumbers sliced very thin, salt, white wine vinegar, touch of sugar, water, and fresh dill--the feathery part of the dill plant.

In a glass bowl---sprinkle maybe a quarter cup of salt over a bowl of sliced cucumbers...Mix well. (I peel thick skinned cucumbers, but leave the thin skinned ones with skin.)

(IF you wish to add onions, add ratio of 4 parts cucumbers to 1 part white onions, sliced very thin or green onions sliced very thin.)

Push all the cucumbers to the center, place a saucer on top that fits in the bowl, and a heavy weight. This is a huge jar of peanut butter. Let this sit, room temperature for a few hours, or until the cucumbers have weeped enough water to cover themselves. 

Here you can see the water. This water has to be squeezed out, you can put all of the pickles in a towel, rinse well with cold water, (you want to remove all that salt). Ball up the towel,  and then turn and squeeze the juice out until nothing more comes out. 

You can put them back in the original bowl, or maybe a smaller covered glass container. 

Add some sprigs of fresh dill (I used 4), just lay them in the dish or just add some onion slices or both.

Make a brine of two parts water, one part white wine vinegar, start with sugar-1/4 to 1/2 the amount of vinegar. (We like them not too sweet, so when you taste the brine, it's first a bit sweet, but then the vinegar kicks in and still goes up your nose) Add more vinegar or sugar to taste. Pour this over the cucumbers, chill, covered.

Example of brine for say 3-4 small to medium cucumbers (not too big)

Brine for fresh cucumbers

1 cup of water, 

1/2 cup of white wine vinegar, 

I start with 1/4 cup of sugar and then add. If you need more, add to taste. (Sprinkle of white pepper optional)

Make more brine if you have lots of cucumbers. They will keep in the refrigerator for up to a month, but they never last that long, LOL.

This first batch didn't last very long---and I had my lunch of tomato basil hummus on multi grain bread and a healthy dose of my Danish Dill Pickles, NUM.

Grandmother would say,  "There you go to eat!" or

Vaer sa god at spise!

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Sandi