Cucumber Seeds

One of the seeds I decided to save this year were cucumbers.  Some of the cukes grew up the wire I placed around the cherry tomatoes to keep you-know-who from picking at all the reddish ones early in the season.  Lulu is not a good sharer so I had to restrict her access to the cherry tomatoes so I could have some as well.

 

You are to leave the cukes grow and ripen as long as possible in the garden.  Here is one of the ones from the wire that has yellowed nicely.

 

When I was worried about frost, I picked the large yellow ones and allowed them to ripen off the vine even more.  You can see the one in the top left is starting to rot.  It is now time to save the seeds.

 

First you cut the cucumbers in half so you can scoop out the seed pulp.

 

You do not need the flesh and skin so add those to your compost heap.  If you have chickens they may eat them as well.  Lulu is a more finicky eater and likes the seeds not the flesh.

 

Next place the seedy pulp in a jar.  Add some water and shake. Over time the mixture will separate.  Leave them for about five days.  The good seeds should sink to the bottom.  I ended up pouring off the scummy water and poured the good seeds into a colander.  I then rinsed off the seeds and repeated the process.

After the second time, I rinsed the seeds well to make sure no bits of flesh were still attached.  Drain them well and place on paper towels or screens to dry for several weeks.  When they are hard and dry, bag and label for next year's use.

Weird Produce

I hope everyone had a happy and safe Halloween.  Lulu and I didn't dress up this year as we just returned home from visiting my sister-in-law in White Rock, BC.

Keeping with the Halloween idea, I decided to show some pics of some of the weird looking produce we grew this year.

First we have a peach with a nose.

 

 

Then we had potatoes that sat up.
 

 And three potatoes joined in a bunch.

Then we had this one that sat up and had another potato joined to its leg.

 This fall we had a number of carrot bunches in one.

 

 Small ones attached to a large one.

Fat, round ones attached to one side. 

 

And a bunch of small ones growing in a vertical row. 

 

I also had a couple of cucumbers that got misshapen when they grew through the chicken wire I placed around the cherry tomatoes to keep Lulu out. 

 

I was growing the cukes for seed for next year and had to cut the wire so it wouldn't hurt them when I harvested them before a frost. 

 

 

 

 



Bread and Butter Pickles

I went away for a week to visit my uncle who was in the hospital and when I returned I had 25 huge cukes ready.  Before I left, there were only a few flowers and no cukes yet - I guess they really took off in the hot weather.  I've been eating lots of Greek Salad since my cherry tomatoes are ready as well.  http://mountaingardengleanings.blogspot.ca/2011/09/greek-salad.html

Since there are so many all at once, it is a perfect opportunity to make some Bread and Butter Pickles.  I use the recipe from my old Purity Cookbook.

Ingredients - this is the original recipe, I myself don't use the peppers and use regular vinegar instead of wine vinegar. 

16 c cukes, washed and sliced
1/3 c pickling or coarse salt
several trays of ice cubes
6 medium onions
1 green pepper
1 red pepper
3 c white wine vinegar
5 c sugar
1 1/2 tsp turmeric
1 1/2 tsp celery seed
2 tbsp mustard seed

This time since I had so many cukes, I upped the recipe by an extra half. 

Wash and thinly slice cucumbers.  Some of them were too big to use the food processor so I sliced these by hand.

The smaller ones were sliced in the food processor - much quicker.



I slice the onions in the processor as well.  Quicker and no tears!

Get a large enough container or bowl to hold the cukes, onions and ice cubes.   Start with a layer of cucumbers.



Add a layer of onions (and peppers if using them).

Sprinkle on part of the salt.

Top with some of the ice cubes.

Continue with the layers until all vegetables and salt are used.  Top with more ice.  Let stand for 3 hours. 

You can see how much moisture has been released by the cukes by how the mixture has shrunk after the 3 hours.  Drain well and place in a large pot.

Mix the sugar, vinegar and spices and pour onto cukes.  Stir well and heat to just boiling.

You can see the pickles turning colours from the turmeric.  Remove from heat and fill hot sterilized jars.  Wipe rim and seal jar.

Store in a cool place for a month and then enjoy!  The original recipe makes about 8 pints.  I increased everything by half except was liberal with the cukes and got 14 pints.



Greek Salad

I love Greek Salad.  Since my cukes and tomatoes have been ready in the garden, I've eaten this salad at least three or four times a week.  Even when only my cucumbers were ready, I ate a modified version with only cukes on a regular basis.

There are a number of different ingredients that you can use for Greek Salad but I'll show you my version.  You can use this as a starting spot and add, subtract or change whatever you like to make it your own.

I start with three or four cucumbers, depending on the size and how many people I am serving.

I used a bunch of cherry tomatoes that grew 1 1/4" to 1 1/2" in diameter.  I don't know the variety because I had quite a number of volunteers this year from the produce chipped from the grocery store.  I had tomatoes, squash, melon and pumpkin that grew on their own.  Some got pulled out but many were left to see what they produced.

Peel and slice the cukes.  Some people like wedges or very thick slices.  I like mine about 1/2" thick.  Some people also remove the seedy centres but I like them. 

Since the tomatoes were too large for one bite, I sliced them in half.  I do you large tomatoes cut into chunks on occasion but am saving them for canning this year.

I like to use pitted black olives and cut them in half.  Some people use whole olives with pits.

Crumble on some feta cheese.  Many people also add onion slices - either white or red but raw onions don't agree with me so I leave them out.  My sister-in-law also adds green peppers chunks.

Sprinkle on crushed oregano leaves.  I like oregano alot so I crush two large pinches of it.

I then drizzle on olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  My mom uses regular vinegar but to me the taste is lacking the flavor of the balsamic.

There you are all ready to go.  Again I didn't give amounts because I find more or less oil and vinegar is all a matter of taste.

Toss the salad to mix and coat it all with the oregano, oil and vinegar.  Add salt and/or pepper to taste if you wish - I don't.  Enjoy!  ;)