My brother stopped by and dropped off the finished pickles. Look at these babies!
It's cool that he wrote the date canned and the date ready for the ones still soaking in the dill goodness. I'm not worried though. We've got five quarts of ready-to-eats. That should keep my wife happy for a while. Notice the "eat-me-first" one up front? Well that one leaked a bit and has dried salt streaks down the side. It should be fine, but we'll eat that one first anyway. We also are going to rinse the ones that are ready-to-eat because even with new brine it is still cloudy. I'm sure it's ok, they just may be slimy. People don't like slimy so we'll rince them and put them back after opening. Live and learn. I'm not going to do the pre-marinade again. The short method is fine for me.
The weekend is going to be touch and go on Saturday, but 70 on Sunday. I'm hoping to get a ton accomplished. I don't expect I'll have many nice weekends left before the rains hit for real. So here's my ambitous to-do list:
- Purchase and install corregated plastic roofs for the compost bins. Buy peat moss and A-clamps (for the hoop covers).
- Pick the green beans, blanch them and freeze them. I seriously doubt the pants will produce again so I'll rip them out and compost them after picking.
- Install hoop covers. It'll be odd with the trellis in place, but I'm worried about taking it down with the tomatoes and cukes using it. Hmm?
- Compost the corn stalks and fluff the compost. Clear the bed. Consider covering the bed with plastic to keep the nutrients in.
- Plant the blueberry bushes using the peat moss. Helps retain moisture around the roots and is a bit acidic. Also use my acid loving fertilizer.
- Cover the potatoes so they stop getting water. Time to let them dry out. Even if they're not ready, I can't guaranty a day to harvest and dry.
- Weed the existing blueberry bed for garlic planting. Probably not plant garlic yet because I don't have the cloves for it. I'll be planting my brother's garlic. He's got tons and that's a good way to keep the harvest coming year after year. Yep, we're saving seed, hehe.
Fun fun fun!
Enjoy your garden...
Sinfonian - it's good to see the benefits of your hard work. Those pickles will be good, i'm sure! Keep up the good work.
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