Posted on 07/29/2011 5:22:39 AM PDT by Red_Devil 232
Good morning gardeners. This past week here in East Central Mississippi has been great, weather wise. There have been numerous and very beneficial pop-up T-storms almost every day, which have helped keep the temperatures down and my garden watered.
I hope TS Don will give some relief to those of you in drought stricken Texas. Forecasts are for it to dissipate in about 36 to 48 hours after landfall.
If you are a gardener or you are just starting out and are in need of advice or just encouragement please feel free to join in and enjoy the friendly discussion. Our Freeper community is full of gardeners, each with varying interests and skill levels from Master Gardener to novice.
I hope all your gardens are flourishing.
The barrel pickles look amazing.... like something you would see in a magazine. May I be so bold as to ask where you got the glass container? I’ve never seen one made of glass and have only seen the crocks.
Thanks Red_Devil 232.
I just did that to several of mine. I’m in the south and the intense sun and heat about did them in but the ones (I have them in buried pots because of all sand) that I moved to where they get half shade during the day are doing great. I cut them way back. They are growing new foliage and one even has new flowers. Looks like it’s going to work for me.
Gorgeous bells. I’m envious. You had more cooler/cloudy days during the heat wave than we did apparently. My tomatoes, however, are all ecstatically happy plantwise. Just no tomato set during hot spell. I think the combo of heat and excessive rain made yours unhappy. Seems like your locale is always getting rain, every time I load the radar.
Your mater plants are about the size of mine. IIRC we started them around the same time.
Thanks for the video it is interesting, you know. He has some very big, you know, and deep raised beds.
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Anchor-Hocking-Heritage-Hill-2-Gal-Jar-with-Lid/16486707
I also bought a cheap poly cutting board with the intent to cut it down to fit in the jar to weigh down the pickles, but for this run, I just used a gallon ziplock bag full of water.
The ping list is at 477 as of this post.
You are a doll for letting me know! Thanks!!
Can you give us more info on your Barrel pickles? They sure look like they will be very tasty. Ingredients?
One of his other videos state that the depth of his raised beds ranges from 12 to 33 inches deep. That is because his land slopes down to the street, and he wanted to keep the beds level...
Half-Sour Pickles
"If you are looking for a crispy deli pickle, this is the one to make - mildly sour, richly flavored with dill and garlic."
8 c. water
1/4 c. pickling salt
1 gallon small pickling cucumbers
6 garlic cloves
6 dill heads or sprigs of fresh dill
2 Tbsp. dill seeds
2 small fresh or dried hot peppers
2 Tbsp. mixed pickling spices
Combine water and pickling salt in a pickle crock. Stir well to dissolve the salt.
Wash cukes and remove blossom ends. Drain well. Add the cukes to the salted water, mixing in the garlic, dill, hot peppers, and pickling spices with the cukes. stir gently to distribute the spices evenly. Cover with a weight to keep the cukes submerged in the brine. Cover the crock.
Store the crock at 68 degrees F. Check the crock every day. Remove any scum that forms on the top. The pickles should be "half-sour" in about 3 days. Taste the pickles. If the results are pleasing, prepare the pickles for long-term or refrigerator storage.
Pack the pickles in sterilized quart jars. Pour the brine into a nonaluminum pan and bring to a boil. Boil for 5 minutes. Cool to room temperature. Pour the cooled brine over the pickles, seal the jars and store in the refrigerator. (See note below.)
Because of the relatively low salt concentration in the brine, the pickles spoil easily if they aren't refrigerated after a week. Don't use this recipe if you are looking for a very sour pickle.
Yield: 4 quarts
You know when the fermentation process has gone well when the fermentation begin within a day or so of combining the ingredients in the crock and lasts about as long as the recipe specifies. The brine will be clear and tasty, not cloudy or slightly funky tasting.
If the pickles taste good and have a good firm texture, but the brine is slightly cloudy, drain off the brine (reserving it)and strain out the spices. Bring the reserved brine to a boil and cool to room temp. Pack the pickles into clean quart jars. Add fresh spices. Pour the cooled brine over the pickles and refrigerate. These pickles will keep for at least several months.
If you want to process the pickles for long-term storage, drain off the brine (reserving it). Strain out spices. Bring the reserved brine to a boil in a nonaluminum saucepan. Pack fresh spices and the cukes into hot sterilized jars.
Pour the hot brine over the pickles, leaving 1/2 inch head space. Process in a boiling water bath or steam canner for 5 minutes. Adjust seals if necessary. Let cool for 12 hours, then check seals. Store any unsealed jars in the fridge. Label and store the jars in a cool dry place.
Processing does take away a little of the crispness of the the pickles. Obviously, its major advantage is that the jars need not take up valuable refrigerator space.
I started them on Sunday, so I guess I'll be packing them in jars this weekend. Now, I just need more jars and more space to store them in the fridge.
I noticed the depth of the beds toward the house were not as deep. I could do this on the hill side just above my fig and pear trees, like a terraced slope. Sure would take a lot of soil though. Does he say what he uses for soil?
I’ve looked up some of those crocks online, and I very much prefer the $9.97 cost for this jar, than the $100+ for those crocks. Ouch!
“I’ve bought pickled Okra in the grocery, but if you pickle them yourself, let me know how they turn out.”
I’ve been pickling okra for years. It’s easy. Just use your favorite dill pickle recipe. I like to toss a couple hot peppers in each jar for a little extra zip. Yummy!
Thank you! I may be growin Cukes next year after seeing your barrel pickles.
You aren’t kidding. I know that crocks run a pretty penny and was really surprised at the affordability of the Walmart jar. In fact, I have kept the site for barrel pickles and some Christmas presents. We exchange two presents with close neighbors and they are always goodies. I am thinking that a pretty jar like this filled with candies or cookies and tied with a ribbon would be beautiful. Plus, they could re-use the jar for their own cookies, sun tea, pickles etc... I think the uses of it are endless.
Ah, I was wondering why his raised beds appeared to be so deep. The odd thing to me though is that he is planting shallow rooting plants out in the deepest areas of the raised bed.
That was a 2 gallon jar. They have a 1 gallon jar too, for $6.97.
Target had some nice big glass jars too, but not any bigger, and in the $20 range, if I remember correctly.
Within the last two weeks, I think Red Devil posted about how much zucchini he had... if it wasn’t him, then he is getting the blame (LOL!). I have two roadside stands near us and I purchased a ton of it. I found this recipe that I named “Red Devil Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread” and it has gotten raves from my family and two or my neighbors. I wanted to share it with anyone interested:
RED DEVIL’S CHOCOLATE CHIP ZUCCHINI BREAD”
3 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp baking soda
3 eggs
2 cups white sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
2 tsps vanilla extract
2 cups grated zucchini
1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts (I used walnuts)
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (I used the mini’s)
1 tbs orange zest (I used the dried)
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease two 9 by 5 inch loaf pans. Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, spices and baking soda. In a large bowl, beat eggs until light and fluffy. Add sugar and continue beating until well blended. Mix in the oil, vanilla, zucchini, nuts. Add the chocolate chips and orange zest — stir those in (I added a tsp of flour to the chips so they don’t settle). Stir in the sifted ingredients and pour into the prepared loaf pans. Bake for 50 minutes or until a skewer or sharp knife inserted in the middle comes out clean. Remove loaves from pans and cool.
** We tried it warm and it was sinful and we also tried it chilled... delicious! You can cut the recipe by half if you don’t want to freeze one, share it with neighbors or have three kids who devour pretty much everything in sight!
** I am sorry but I don’t have the calorie counts etc... Red Devil is getting the compliments for this recipe but he is also getting the blame that I gained a pound and a half this week (LOL). I had to blame someone...
I just threw cukes in the garden last year at the last minute to fill some unused space. I enjoyed the pickles so much, I built new raised beds and moved a pergola to support trellis’s for 20 plants this year.
I should have weighed each harvest, but based on the few I did weigh, I would estimate I’m at about 150 pounds so far this year. I have enough pickles to last through til next summer, and I’ve given away roughly 25 pounds of cukes and several jars of pickles to neighbors or the soup kitchen.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.