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| pickling cucumbers- not very big but they taste good raw or pickled! |
Cucumbers! I grew these cucumber plants from organic seed and was pleased when they all came up! Only thing, we have had very little rain so it has been a job to keep them alive! They are beginning to really produce now, so I will either have to give some away or make pickles. How about both? Yes, that's the ticket!
Looking up recipes for easy refrigerator pickles, I found quite a few that used a long list of pickling spices and ingredients but I found one that only used white vinegar, salt and sugar. That is my kind of recipe! I peeled and sliced just two cucumbers and put them into this pint jar with the liquid. You are supposed to wait two days but hey, it looked too good so I had some on a sandwich the day that I made them and they were delicious!
Kay's Pickles:
1 cup white vinegar
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
(NOTE: I made more pickles and think I used 1 tsp. salt, whereas I had this as TWO teaspoons originally. Please, I would taste the liquid and put it to your taste. Not meaning to steer you wrongly, I am just trying to remember how I made them! You could also use more sugar if you like!)
Stir in a large glass measuring cup until dissolved and then pour liquid into glass pint jar. Pack the cucumber slices into the jar. Place jar upon a crocheted cloth and admire! (Then, put the jar in the fridge and use within 2 weeks.)
You understand the first part of title post, I am exclaiming to you that I have grown cucumbers but what does the second part mean?
When I was a little girl, my sister and I used to take cucumbers and wrap them up into a cloth and pretend they were our "babies" and we would cuddle them and hold them close. (Did anyone else do that or is this just a very "country" type of thing that hardly anyone else has heard of?)
I told one of my co workers about our pots of cucumbers and she seemed quite keen on the produce. I also told her about my cucumber baby days! So, what do you think...of course, I had to crochet a green and white cloth and wrap up a cucumber for her!
Cucumber, baby! Cucumber baby!
(I love a play on words, don't you?)
Oh, and speaking of that...does this make you think of the expression, "cool as a cucumber"? Did you know that the inside of a cucumber is about 20 degrees cooler than the outside temperature?
We have had had about 36 days with the temp over 90 degrees, so cucumbers are a very nice thing to have this year!
Hey, eat more cucumbers, especially home grown ones!
Wish I could send you all one!
So you grew your cucumbers in a pot? Hmmm...I quit growing the vining plants because they took up the yard all around them and it was hard to mow and weed. I'll have to try the pot way since I love cukes! Jack loves when I slice them up and put them in a bowl with vinegar and water. Also putting them in a bowl with sour cream is good too! Enjoy your produce!
ReplyDeleteThis is the very first time we have ever grown cucumbers so we are learning as we go! Richard has done most of the watering, so it has been a job though in this heat. Sour cream and cukes, that sounds cool!
DeleteCongratulations in growing these beautiful "babies" from scratch! I bet they are delicious.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know about the temperature difference, I wonder whether my parents know - they grow them on the allotment, too. It is their wedding anniversary tomorrow, and we'll all (including O.K.) have a meal at a beergarden restaurant together; if I don't forget, I will tell them this :-)
Congratulations to your parents on their wedding anniversary!
DeleteA celebratory meal at a beergarden sounds lovely but even I would spell that like this: Biergarten! (I must have seen it that way in England or else from American Lampoon's European Vacation! HA! (I LOVED the part where they were in Germany!)
Would be so tickled if you would tell your parents about the cool cucumber fact! (Cool, meaning it in TWO ways, you gotta love it!)
Fascinated by cool as a cucumber information. WEll done on your success with the cucumbers and pickles. My latest post happens to be on gardening but not the eating varieties. Hope all is well.
ReplyDeleteHey Paul!
DeleteWonderful to see your comment here! I love your garden, it is LOVELY! Good job!
I love cucumbers, either which way. :)
ReplyDeleteI have always loved home grown cucumbers but growing them myself and watching them grow has been fun this year.
DeleteI have never grown them in a pot,but I have made pickles before, not lately though. I love sweet pickles. Yours looks really good and cool!
ReplyDeleteMy Aunt Leona used to make Bread and Butter pickles and she was well known for them, for good reason!
DeleteMs. G was given so many home grown cucumbers that she couldn't eat them all and gave us plenty. That recipe is easy enough i may make some tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteIt's not unusual for children to turn almost anything into a toy. After all, the original Mr. Potatohead toy didn't come with a plastic potato, you used one from your pantry.
Oh, I am so old I remember playing Mr. Potato Head with a real potato! I do wonder if my Grandfather might have told us to wrap up the cukes and pretend they were babies. It would be the kind of thing he would do, he might have remembered it from his childhood. I do wonder.
DeleteI can't work out whether these are just small cucumbers or what we call courgettes or, even smaller, gherkins or cornichons. Either way I love cucumbers in salads and sandwiches, courgettes as an accompanying vegetable or stuffed and gherkins pickled (beautifully crisp).
ReplyDeleteThese are small cucumbers. They are called "pickling" cucumbers, that is what the seed packet said anyway! Your courgettes are similar to our yellow squash or zucchini, I had a photo of my Dad's yellow squash blossoms on another post!
DeleteWish I could send you one of my cucumbers! :-)
I can't say I've really heard of cucumber babies but I HAVE heard of baby cucumbers. I was at the store earlier and they had small snacking cucumbers. I should probably have bought some. Well done on keeping your cucumbers alive and I hope the pickles turn out well.
ReplyDeleteYes, next time buy those snacking cucumbers and let me know how good they are! You have great produce over there, you should enjoy it! And I will tell my husband your last sentence, he has done most of the watering!
DeleteI grow pickling cucumbers every summer and the whole family LOVES THEM! I have to grow several plants because both of my Goldens (frst Hubbell, you might remember, and now Millie!) also love(d) to help themselves to a cucumber off the plant every now and again. Alain will make pickles for us every once in a while. SO YUMMY!
ReplyDeleteGlad you agree that they are good just as they are too! In everything that I read about pickling cumcumbers, I couldn't find anything where anyone said they were good to eat raw, everyone just talked of their pickle recipes!
DeleteYou will have to tell me Alain's recipe for pickles! Pretty please? xx
I like the sweet baby gherkin pickles.
ReplyDeleteI like the sweet baby gherkin pickles.
ReplyDeleteMe too!
DeleteOh I love cucumbers. They have such a clean flavor. We used to take the biggest ones from the garden. They tend to get "woody" if they get too big. We would slice them lengthwise and scoop them out. A twig and hankie made a sail and we would sail them in a pool of water all afternoon. It was a good way to cool off.
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of your cucumber boat! I have never seen or heard of it before! Stay cool!
DeleteI love the story! What a fun memory. I love cukes with a little bit of salt. I can eat a whole bowl at a time. I can't believe your temps! But then again, you have ac everywhere, right? We have it in the car, which is great, but in the house all the windows are open with a fan in each room. We've been very lucky with rain. 1 1/2 inches just last evening.
ReplyDeleteWe did not have air conditioning when we were kids and I wonder how I survived it! Our A/C decided to quit on the hottest day of the year recently. Thank goodness, the repairman had had a cancellation and was able to show up very quickly. (It was over 100 that day.)
DeleteRain....please, send us some!
One of my friends brought me a couple of those little cucumbers from her garden. So good.
ReplyDeleteCucumbers, happy to grow them and happy to share them! I love that someone else will enjoy them too. Hope you are staying cool, my Georgia friend!
DeleteLove pickles! Love home grown cucumbers. But we have those horrible stripped beetles that kill them so I've stopped trying. But maybe in a pot on the deck the beetles would not find them...Thanks for the good idea, Kay!
ReplyDeleteWe were surprised at how well they have done in pots and the pots are not that big, so it's really not that much soil! If you try them next year, let me know!
DeleteIm so glad you posted this recipe. I've been wanting to try an easy recipe that didn't call for all sorts of spices. This might be the one.
ReplyDeleteI am such a sucker for easy recipes. I even like children's cookbooks! Let me know how you get on if you make the pickles.
DeleteGreat cucumbers! Laura Ingalls Wilder - or just Laura Ingalls as she would have been then! - wrote in the first of the little house books about having a corncob as a doll, so I don't suppose you are the only one with fruit and veg as a doll!
ReplyDeleteOh yes, I remember seeing corncob dolls, although I can't say I ever played with them myself. Love the Little House stories!
DeleteYou seem to be in a cucumber pickle mood. That's nice. Happy eating.
ReplyDeleteHope you are as cool as a cucumber these days! xx
DeleteLucky you! I love pickled cucumbers!
ReplyDeleteKay, this has been the summer of the cucumber for me, and it is the one bright spot for this hot summer!
DeleteLoved this, Kay! I had no idea that you could grow cucumbers in a pot! In an alternate universe there must be a version of me with a gorgeous, productive garden. It's not happening in this life, although part of me would love to do it. How sweet to think of you and your sister and your cucumber babies ~ never heard of that before, but it's so adorable! I don't envy you your heat! Take care!
ReplyDeleteWe grow in pots, much easier to care for plants that way, you can move them around if you need to! (You can't really move the pots of cucumbers though, they have those long vines that grow all around and attach to anything in sight! Just found out from my Dad that it was HIS Dad who told his little sister, (our dear Aunt Leona) to take the large cucumbers (the ones that were missed on the vine and had grown too large to eat) to wrap them up in cloth and play with them like babies. Then, my Dad must have done the same with my sister and me! :-)
DeleteThis is awesome. I have some growing this year and my mom is super excited.
ReplyDelete