Hey, those cucumbers look like pickles
16.7 years ago cucumbers, summer
That was a statement my oldest daughter (6 years old) made which I must admit I am pretty sure I was much older before I had that thought. Seemed like a good opportunity for teaching the kids were pickles come from and a great excuse to make some sweet summer pickles. While heading out the door to get some spices we were lacking my wife told me, "these better not be $20 pickles." I have some history here, taking that advice I only came back with just mustard seed and decided to improvise the rest, here is what I came up with.
Cheap Vegetable Gardener’s Sweet Summer Pickle recipe
- 1 cucumber
- 1 clove garlic
- 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1 cup water
- 3 T sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp pepper flakes
- 1/4 tsp cloves
- 1/8 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp coriander (mine were still a little green from garden)
- 1/4 tsp mustard seed
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
Directions: Pretty easy, just cut the cucumber into slices 1/4 in thick and add all ingredients to sealable container, shake well, and place in refrigerator. Wait at least 3 days and eat. Once empty just add more sliced cucumbers and repeat.
Tags: cheap, garden seeds, garlic bulbs, pepper plants, vegetables
Picking orange tomatoes
My youngest daughter has been very excited waiting to pick our tomatoes. She picked a green one a couple weeks back which I informed her that she needs to wait until they turn red, guess I needed to be more clear about “dark” red, since yesterday when we went out to our garden the first thing I heard was “I picked a matoe” which she is proudly displaying below.
Tags: cheap, tomato plants, vegetables
Getting kids to eat vegetables from the garden
16.8 years ago potatoes
One of the original ideas when starting my first garden was a way to hopefully to get my kids to actually eat some vegetables if they helped growing. Other than a couple bites of carrots this has not been very successful until recently. I was able to convince my four year old to actually eat some potatoes from the garden…well okay potatoes are not technically scientifically classified as a vegetable, sure I had to slice them up coat them with oil and salt to get her to eat them. Guess it doesn’t really matter since we had fun digging up the potatoes and preparing the fries.
Baked French Fries
- 2-3 large potatoes
- Vegetable spray
- 1 tsp salt
Description: Preheat oven to 450F. Peal potatoes and slice to desired thickness. Soak in water with 1/2 tsp salt for 10 minutes. Strain out water and pat potatoes dry on paper towels. Spray cookie sheet with vegetable spray and then lay out potatoes on single layer and spray with another coat of vegetable spray. Sprinkle remaining salt on top of fries. Cook until fries are golden brown (about 10-15 minutes) flip them over and cook until the other side is golden.
Tags: cheap, vegetables
Propagation of strawberry plants
16.8 years ago strawberries
My strawberries have stopped producing berries and now have started send runners all over the place. During the berry growing season I would pinch them off to let the plants use their energy creating delicious berries. Now those runners are not really doing any harm I have decided to let some of them live and propagate them into some small plant trays.
I grow my strawberries in the open end of cinder blocks and the rest of my vegetable garden is surrounded by gravel so not really any place for them to go, with the exception of taking over my vegetable garden. Given they will not grow in gravel and I like vegetables in my vegetable garden I have redirected them into some plant trays (ironically the same ones I brought the plants parents home in) filled with potting mix. All you do is simply put the end of the runner in the soil and it will do the rest. To keep the runner from popping out of the soil, the normal convention is to create a U-shape with a paperclip to hold the runner in place underground, for whatever strange reason I couldn’t find any of these anywhere in my house I opted for bent bamboo skewers. After about a week you should have your very own baby strawberry plants at this time you can cut the “umbilical” cord from the mother plant. Now the next question is where I am going to put these new plants…guess I need to make a new garden bed or find some friends that want some strawberries next year.
Tags: led, outdoor plants, strawberry plants, vegetables
Something is coming out of my compost bin!! – Update
16.8 years ago compost, tomato
The volunteer tomato plant that has been growing out of my compost bin definitely looks healthy but given its rapid foliage growth and no fruit I guess I don’t need to do any soil tests to confirm my compost is high in nitrogen. Note to self, don’t grow tomatoes in pure compost.
Tags: cheap, compost, outdoor plants, tomato plants, vegetables
Ok, so now where did the the cilantro go?
16.8 years ago cilantro, salmonella, tomato
Well I wrote a couple weeks about my surprise of the missing tomoatos, last week I went back to my favorite Mexican restaurant at work and noticed cilantro has also been removed as a choice of condiments. Going back to my desk I discovered that cilantro and peppers have been added to the list of produce that has been reported tainted with salmonella. With the whole law of supply and demand maybe I should start selling my cilantro and tomotoes at the local farmers market.
Tags: cheap, cilantro, pepper plants, tomato plants, vegetables
