Two years ago I wrote about a cucumber glut and a fresh pickle recipe. Last year, our cucumbers didn’t do so well, and I didn’t plant nearly as many. The 2010 garden was planted with three varieties of cucumbers but in what I thought were realistic, appropriate quantities – two hills a piece with about 3 plants per hill.

two cucumber hills climbing tomato cages

It turns out 18 cucumber plants is way too many. In my defense, I was still rebounding from last year’s poor garden-cucumber relationship. I know, it’s unhealthy.

3 varieties: Lemon, Suhyo tk, Homemade Pickles

That unhealthy relationship has led to some nice cucumber salads, several trips to local food banks (they welcome fresh produce donations), and the realization that canning pickles isn’t so hard.

Step 1: Collect and wash cucumbers

Only one of our varieties is actually a pickling kind – I’m sure the others would likely do fine, but they wouldn’t look like pickles. Aesthetics are important.

Step 2: Slice cucumbers into halves or spears

I found some fresh-pack dill pickling canning recipes. Fresh-packing means there is no soaking or cooking of the cucumber for days/weeks, but it does still call for several ingredients. I was at the store purchasing quart jars when I noticed some packaged mixes. Much simpler than purchasing all the ingredients separately. Perhaps I have sacrificed on overall pickling potential, but I wasn’t really setting out to win any awards. I just wanted to can some pickles.

Steps 3-8: Follow instructions on pickling mix package

I’ve used two different pickling mixes now: Mrs. Wages and Ball, both Kosher Dill mixes. They appear about the same, but Mrs. Wages is a slightly larger package making an additional quart jar. That’s good if you have many cucumbers, but not good if you have a small stove that requires a smaller hot-water canner.

Please note that I refrained from using the following puns and word-plays when writing this posting:

• In a bit of a pickle
• That ain’t kosher
• Dill-iberate
• Dill-ectable
• Canning what you can can
• Had a ball
• Indistinguisha-ball

I knew I would be spending a little time today picking beans. I actually spent quite a bit of time searching for the stealthy little legumes. What is a legume? I mean, what constitutes legumeness?  I’ll have to look that up later.

We planted quite a few beans this year. I had somehow found myself with four different varieties and thought I ought to try them all and before I knew what happened, I had planted just about all of them. Anne announced she likes beans at some point, so I felt justified. The variety above is Dragon Tongue – a bush variety with purple and yellow/white splotches. It’s a good one.

The seed catalog also enticed me to spend my dollars on some attractive eggplant varieties. The most unique is the Turkish Orange. We grew Bambini eggplant a few years ago, another small variety. I didn’t much care for it. This Turkish Orange is a little bigger, more orange and just great. We’ve enjoyed a few eggplant parmesan already.

And then there are cucumbers. You can’t really tell from the photo below, but the basket on the right is full of cucumbers. Why in the world did I need to plant so many cucumbers? Once again, I am a sucker for varieties. The burpless is a favorite, so I had to have some of those. Anne wanted some of the lemon variety we planted last year, and then I thought it would great to plant some for pickles. The pickling variety is pictured below next to the lavender touch eggplant (also very good). I ought to be picking these cucs a bit younger. Their size and abundance was a surprise this morning.

Click the image above for a larger view

We’ve been eating better these days. The garden has been helping. And while we have pulled the occasional items here and there, this was the first full meal of a wide variety of fresh veggies. The chiogga beet (white and red stripes behind the cucumber) is a very sweet variety and it doesn’t bleed all over the plate when stabbed with a fork – which, as we all know, is one of the worst things about beets. The garden is about ready to explode with produce. It’s exciting, but in some ways I wish it would just stay at about this pace.

If you look closely, you will see patty-pan squash, rond de nice squash, tomatoes (cherry, brandywine?, stupice), beans, lemon cucumbers, lemon peppers (ripened red), okra, brussel sprouts and blackberries. It was a good day for harvesting. Tonight we had a cucumber and pepper salad with mustard vinaigrette along with a tomato and mozzarella plus basil salad with vinaigrette.

I enjoy harvesting. It typically means eating is just around the corner. But I always feel a twinge of sadness and worry. The sadness, I think, stems from the impending finality of the season that harvesting marks. And I worry the produce will fail to live up to tasty expectations. The acorn/winter squash was especially nerve-racking since it is hard to know if/when it’s ripe. It isn’t winter yet, so it seems a bit premature, but we were not disappointed at all. And with enough butter and brown sugar on top, who cares if it’s ripe! The eggplant is a white variety, so that one is ripe.

Another sure-not-to-disappoint are the cucumbers. I’ve been taking these along with raw beans in my lunch this week. And I think I mentioned this before, but the cucs are a burpless variety. I’ve never noticed that regular cucumbers cause me to burp, but these certainly do not. Perhaps it’s just a marketing gimmick. Seed stores would probably sell more if they labeled everything burpless. Burpless corn, burpless watermelon, burpless greens… When faced with the decision to buy burpy or burpless variety, who wouldn’t buy burpless?!

More on the way. I froze most of the remaining kohlrabi – we shall see how that turns out. Also picked a large turnip last night, along with some potatoes, fennel and carrots. I don’t think I will be planting turnips of this variety again. Not my favorite.

I never managed to create the obelisk for growing beans this year. Instead, I planted beans and cucumbers in various places around the garden near to climbing structures. The first spot was next to the shed, just behind the hollyhocks. It faces east, so it doesn’t get quite as much sun as the rest of the garden, so it’s been progressing a little slower. It’s looking great now. The cucumber (larger leaves in the middle) is especially strong here.

The pea plastic mesh fencing is also holding a collection of beans and cucumbers. These cucumbers were some of the first and have just begun swelling up all over the place. We cut into the first one two days ago and it was good. I think it might have been a bit over-ripe, but still really good and fresh. 

Some of my favorite, although a bit crowded, are the beans climbing the tomato cages. It’s tricky to spot the beans in all the greenery, so it makes it extra special when I see one – or several.