June 27,2024: Garden Beans – July 8, 2024: Cucamelons and Summer Squash – July 10: Pickling Cucumbers – July 16: Straight 8 Cucumbers – July 19-20 Pickles! – July 22: Cherry Tomatoes! – June 27, Kosher Dill Pickle Spears – August 1 Marigold Seeds – August 22: Garden update
June 27, 2024 – Bean Harvest!
As July approaches, the weather turns warm and the days grow longer. In our neck of the woods, that means it’s time to harvest the fruits of our labor in the garden. This year, we planted beans in the spring and have been tending them lovingly ever since. The plants have done well, and the beans are starting to ripen. We can hardly wait to pick them and enjoy them fresh from the garden.
Garden Beans need to be harvested before seeds form for tenderness
rt23 staff
Our Garden Bean patch is now filled with young, tender, green garden beans, replacing the flowers that were there previously. The beans are ready to be harvested, and we picked a small basket from just one row. We have four more rows yet to pick, and we plan to grill the beans on the barbecue with salt, pepper, olive oil, and a bit of butter wrapped in foil as a side dish for dinner tonight. The beans are delicious, and we are looking forward to eating them. These garden beans frow fast and should be picked before the seeds form and they loose their tenderness.
Garden beans are delicious, but must be picked early when tender and flavorful. If you wait too long, the beans form seeds and become tough and lose flavor.
rt23 staff
We picked our green beans, and we have a ton of them. We can’t eat them all right away, so we are washing, blanching, and freezing them so we can use them in soups and stews this winter. We are also going to be giving some of them away to friends and family.
July 8, 2024 Cucamelons!
Cucamelons, Mexican Sour Gherkins, are tasty little treats that can be picked and eaten right out of the garden. Cucamelons have a cucumber crunch with a mild citrusy flavor.
Summer Squash!
Summer Squash should be picked when the fruit is 6 to ten inches in length. Cut stem with scissors or pruning shears leaving some stem on the fruit. Picking early and often will encourage the plant to produce more fruit
July 10, 2024 – National Pickling Cucumbers
The cucumber plants have been fun to watch over the past few weeks. They have been generating a large number of flowers, and now the cukes are starting to show. Now begins the search for the mature, green cukes among the large green leaves. This is a very rewarding time in the garden.
This year, I cultivated two different varieties of cucumbers. The first variety was a pickling cucumber. These cucumbers are perfectly suited for preserving. The second variety was a slicing cucumber, which is ideal for eating fresh. I am looking forward to pickling my cucumbers and enjoying them this winter.
July 16: Straight 8 Cucumbers
Today we harvested our first Straight Eight Cucumber. We picked it a little early, when the seeds were small and tender for a refreshing summer snack. We sliced it and enjoyed it fresh, just as it was. It was delicious!
July 19-20 Pickles!
Every day I am harvesting more cucumbers than the day before, and it looks like this will be a good year for them. Cucumbers are delicious fresh from the garden, and they are also great for making pickles and relishes. Last year I experimented with pickling and preserving the surplus, and I am glad I did. I have enjoyed the pickles I made all winter long.
Before I make shelf-stable pickles, I make fresh half-sour pickles. I planted dill in my garden this year, and it produced an early harvest. Since I couldn’t use it all fresh, I froze some of it. Now I have a plan to use my frozen dill to make my fresh-pack pickles.
Fresh Half-Sour Pickles
These half sour pickles are a summer treat at barbeques, but not shelf stable and must be refrigerated after opening.
Ingredients:
You will need a 1/2 gallon wide-mouth ball jar and a fermentation lid
4 cups water
3-4 cucumbers sliced into spears
3-1/2 tbsp. coarse sea salt
4-5 cloves chopped garlic
2 tsp. peppercorns
2 tsp. mustard seed
2 tsp. dill seed
1/2 tsp. Calcium Chloride (food grade) aka pickle crisp
bunch fresh dill
- Try to select cucumbers before the seeds mature.
- As always carefully wash cucumbers removing “burrs”. slice into spears.
- wash and clean 1/2 gallon mason jar.
- Add chopped garlic (4+ cloves) peppercorns (2 tsp) fresh dill, mustard seed (2 tsp), dill seed ( 1 tsp.) to the jar.
- Add to jar 4 cup water and 3-1/2 tbsp. salt, 1/2 tsp. calcium chloride. Mix that the salt dissolves.
- Add cucumber spears to jar.
- ferment using fermentation lid with airlock spout at room temperature for 3-4 days.
- Refrigerate for seven to ten days.
- enjoy deli style half sour pickles for up to two months.
- The original recipe can be found here:
- https://www.bhg.com/recipe/easy-half-sour-pickles/
July 22, 2024: Cherry Tomatoes!
We germinated our cherry tomato plants indoors in March. After a month, we transplanted most of the plants into pots, and the remainder were planted in the garden. We have just had our first harvest, and we ate them immediately! We are looking forward to eating more of our homegrown tomatoes this summer.
Cherry tomatoes are a delicious snack. To prepare them, we first slice them in half and arrange them on a plate with the cut side facing up. Next, we sprinkle them with salt, pepper, and oregano. The result is a delicious dish! We also like to drizzle the tomatoes with olive oil and sprinkle them with grated Parmesan cheese. We ate these cherry tomatoes as fast as we could pick them. They were delicious! We are sure to have many more cherry tomatoes this summer. We planted a large number of tomato plants this year, and we think they will produce a bountiful harvest.
June 27, 2024 Shelf Stable Kosher Dill Pickle Spears
August 1, 2024 Marigold Seeds
I am now harvesting the dried marigold flowers from my garden. I am saving the seeds for next year’s planting. I will store them in a paper bag in the refrigerator with my remaining seeds from spring planting.
August 22, 2024 : Garden update
Yes, my garden is a big mess, but it is producing summer squash, tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, and delicious cucumbers. Critters have also been an ongoing concern
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