Preserving the harvest. The large jars are refrigerator pickles. Three jars of cucumbers and onions and one jar of dilly cukes.

Cucumber and onions

Brine:
1 cup sugar
2 cups vinegar
4 cups water

This brine is done cold. No heating needed. Super easy.

Salt and pepper to taste. Whisk sugar in the liquids to dissolve and pour over your sliced cukes and onions. Refrigerate. You can begin eating them the next day but the longer they rest in the brine, the better they get.

Very nice, Ann. You are blessed to have a garden. I might be able to get a raised bed started for fall-winter crops, but there is so much work to do on the new old place that it might not happen this year.
My guess is only a tiny fraction of households can food anymore, compared to 50 years ago. I remember covering a city council meeting when the annual contract for refuse collection came up. I happened to chat with the company rep, and he mentioned that in the old days when the garbage man dumped your can into his big metal one with the large handle that he would boost up almost to his shoulder, his guys always dreaded canning season because the scraps left over from fruit and vegetable prep, being wet, weighed a ton. He said his guys no longer noticed a canning season difference -- and this would have been in the 1980s.

Bill, I don't know why people would put that stuff in the trash. Mine goes to the chickens and the compost pile. Compost goes into the garden the following season. Gardens are well worth the effort so I hope you can get something established.

Yes, most people do not have a stake in their food anymore. They have no idea how limited the selection is and lack of variety in a supermarket. I reckon a good deal of city people do not cook any meals and only eat out. Mostly drive-throughs and pizza.

I recently had a guest and we did go to a local restaurant which was very busy. Lots of families. Growing up we did not go out like that. Parents would have a date night now and then and we kids stayed with the sitter. It would have been too expensive for the whole family. I had also noted a large amount of food thrown on the floor by the kiddos. Parents did nothing about that. I would have been mortified by such bad behavior. Times sure are different!

You are right about everything!

BUTTTTT! Those kids need a slap on the back of their heads like Gibbs vs. Dinuzzo!

Hip

You got that right! I didn't have too many problems with my boys but I nipped it in the bud early. Copmpost bins are a gardening necessity. I had a large cage that I built for mine a few years ago then I started using my electric concrete mixer to turn it daily. I also came up with the idea (but never did implement it) to run a pipe from the kitchen to the compost pile that incorporated an internal screw (like used in corn or grain elevators) that would be timed to rotation of its length by the time factor of 14 days (the ideal compost breakdown time).Oh + another helpful hint is to use Yarrow (genus achelium) diced up in your compost; it breaks it down almost twice as fast. Easy to grow too + also make a great blood coagulant for severe cuts, (that's why the genus was named for Achilles)

Ann,

Looks great. How long do the pickles need to sit before they are ready?

A day but they get better as time goes on. That's why I make several jars.

Just like sauerkraut, it improves with age.

quote:

Originally posted by NormanConquest:
Just like sauerkraut, it improves with age.

Absolutely!

Love it! I was a child of 'bottle everything-and I mean everything-vegetables, meats, fruits, etc.'-parents. And, on top of that, we also made our own laundry and bathing soap, as well as bottled every jam and jelly known to mankind. Homemade chili sauce for tacos, etc, was to die for! Pickles of every type and variety, along with pickled beets, pickled onions, pickled okra, homemade relish, etc. We also made our own sauerkraut and then there was our homemade horse radish-hotter than the hubs of hell that would open up your sinuses and give you visions that you never thought possible!

Homemade is best.