u/Steven1789

With the temperature dropping to 38°F overnight, I decided to pick the remaining Picklebush cucumbers, clear the bed, and start preparing the soil for the hard-neck garlic I’ll soon plant.

She hardly ever misses.

I’m proud of these pickles. As the season progressed my dill, garlic, and picklebush cucumbers came in, and each jar includes 1-3 key homegrown ingredients.

My specialty is lacto-fermented garlic-dill full sour pickles, but with so many cucumbers coming in around Labor Day, I started to make fridge pickles.

One of these jars is from a year ago. Those pickles have body still, and they taste very good with a deep, mellowed-brine flavor.

The jars, from top left to bottom right: garlic-dill lacto, garlic-dill lacto, garlic-dill chips lacto, fridge garlic-dill, fridge sweet garlic-dill, fridge bread & butter, half sour garlic-dill lacto (1 week ferment), and fridge copycat Grillo’s classic garlic-dill.

I tasted several of these tonight. So freaking good.

Not shown: a half gallon fermenting in a cabinet and a gallon of garlic-dill in the garage fridge.

Two-week soak for these organic red beets fermented in a 2.25% brine with caraway, coriander, cumin, and bay leaves. Heady stuff.

I’m doing my best to boost profits for Ball.

These picklebush cucumbers got a brine made with white and apple cider vinegar, sugar, salt, garlic, yellow onion, brown and yellow mustard seeds, ground turmeric, and whole allspice and clove.

The Costco nearest to me in NJ sells chicken feet, so I decided to make stock. 6 pounds of feet (boiled for 5 minutes first and then rinsed), leeks, carrots, celery, garlic, fresh parsley and thyme, bay leaves, and peppercorns.

Gelatinous goodness.

I have 9 plants producing heavily right now. These are all from the lowest level of the vines, which I trained to grow vertically. There are hundreds of flowers and many bees doing the heavy lifting for me.

I do a lot of fermented foods, including garlic-dill pickles. It’s not always easy to find really fresh Kirby cukes, though we now live in an area with lots of farms stands (about 50 miles due west of Manhattan) and the cucumbers have been good. I’m looking for fruit 4 to 5 inches in length and as fresh as possible.

I made 2 gallons (3-week ferment) and refrigerated them about 5 weeks ago.

So I decided to grow cucumbers for the first time, planting 18 Picklebush seeds around July 14, eventually leaving 9 to grow after a fast germination. I’m in 6b/7a, and these are in a 32x32x32-inch Vego bed. I pulled my hard-neck garlic July 4-10 and amended the soil before planting.

This has been one of the most satisfying grows, especially since it was spur of the moment (along with carrots and peppers in the adjacent Vego bed that’s bigger than this one.

The cucumbers I picked were barely cornichon size on Monday. The plants’ growth is phenomenal to see. The tendrils are fascinating, gripping on to whatever they can reach.

The cucumbers will get turned into a variety of pickles (fermented and vinegar methods), but these went into a salad. We ate half of one about 2 minutes after pickingc de. Great crunch and loads of flavor (for a cucumber).

I do a lot of fermented foods, including garlic-dill pickles. It’s not always easy to find really fresh Kirby cukes, though we now live in an area with lots of farms stands (about 50 miles due west of Manhattan) and the cucumbers have been good. I’m looking for fruit 4 to 5 inches in length and as fresh as possible.

I made 2 gallons (3-week ferment) and refrigerated them about 5 weeks ago.

So I decided to grow cucumbers for the first time, planting 18 Picklebush seeds around July 14, eventually leaving 9 to grow after a fast germination. I’m in 6b/7a, and these are in a 32x32x32-inch Vego bed. I pulled my hard-neck garlic July 4-10 and amended the soil before planting.

This has been one of the most satisfying grows, especially since it was spur of the moment (along with carrots and peppers in the adjacent Vego bed that’s bigger than this one.

The cucumbers I picked were barely cornichon size on Monday. The plants’ growth is phenomenal to see. The tendrils are fascinating, gripping on to whatever they can reach.

The cucumbers will get turned into a variety of pickles (fermented and vinegar methods), but these went into a salad. We ate half of one about 2 minutes after pickingc de. Great crunch and loads of flavor (for a cucumber).

I started these plants from seed in mid-July after I pulled my hard-neck garlic; 6b/7a in Morris County, NJ. The first photo is from August 14, the second today, August 28.

I was anxious about pollination, but the bees are doing their thing. I see many growing cucumbers on the bottom part of the plants, and as more flowers emerge higher up, I imagine pollination will take place.

I packed 9 plants in this 32x32x32-inch Vego planter. The supports I rigged are working well.

The cucumbers are ideal for pickles, and they’ll be picked at 4-5 inches.

The fruit are growing so fast.

Franklin and Stella hamming around this afternoon

This half-gallon is 50/50 water with beets, carrots, garlic, caraway and cumin seeds, black peppercorns, bay leaves, ginger, and 3 tablespoons of brine from a recent batch of dill-garlic pickles. 2.25 percent salt by total weight.

I figure I’ll give it 2 weeks or so.

A couple of previous editions:
https://imgur.com/gallery/beet-kvass-pickled-beets-sour-pickles-vubNuHa

https://imgur.com/gallery/beet-kvass-kPBwJdY

Very happy with these. Meaty bite and one flat and one drum (with a feta-chickpea summer salad and roasted potatoes and broccoli) are all you need.

Very happy with these. Meaty bite and one flat and one drum (with a feta-chickpea summer salad and roasted potatoes and broccoli) are all you need.

Had an amazing dinner at The Circle, and this stunning sky greeted us.

Saw these the other day when we took our Airedales for a 4-mile out-and-back heading northeast from the Coffee Potter in Long Valley.

These are behind an automotive shop right along the trail.

https://www.reddit.com/r/newjersey/s/HMpWOzadsT

Excellent show last night by this guitar virtuoso (whom I first saw at the New Morning jazz club in Paris in January 1986)

The graveyard is about a mile northeast on the trail from the parking area off West Mill Road inlet Long Valley.

It’s private property so I don’t ever get too close checking out the cars.
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