Pickles!

I never would have thought these cucumbers would have made as many pickles as they did. Here's a shot of the second hoard I talked about pulling in yesterday.
I decided to try to do a batch of pickles and not worry if I had extra brine left over. Extra brine was better than extra cucumbers. These are simple slicing cucumbers and not pickling cucumbers so I know the quality of the finished product won't be up to snuff. They're not going to stay crispy, but instead get rather floppy, but still tasty! I did some in whatever half pints I had empty since we never seem to finish a full pint and I just kept stuffing pint after pint with cucumber slices. I couldn't believe how many jars I filled up.

All in all, there were 9.5 pints of sliced cucumber, kosher dill pickles. I was flabbergasted. These 8.5 pints below did a good job of sealing right from the canner.

This bad boy didn't want to seal. Three hours later I came back and tapped on the lid to check and the stinkin' seal set when I tapped on it. Not good. Not safe to shelve. I put them in the refrigerator and we'll eat those first.

I'm glad I got to do another batch of pickles. I've said it over and over, but I can't believe how well this round of cukes is producing in comparison to the last. We've had some crazy rain and beautiful temperatures, so I'm sure that's helped out as well. By the end of the weekend, I'll have to pull an additional 6-8 off of the vine. Those will go directly to school. I'm sure I can find some takers for them. The time for the first frost is very close. I'm going to be sad to see it come, but glad to start planning the next garden in earnest.

I'm pretty impressed with these raised beds, if not the square foot gardening method in general. Do I agree with all of the recommended spacings and depth requirements? No. They may be good for ideal situations, but mine aren't ideal, however, I do think that with some adaptations to fit your particular growing environment, it's phenomenal both for the inexperienced and seasoned grower. Hopefully I'll only get better at it and pull in well over 1,000lbs like Granny!!

The morning comes early. Sweet gardening dreams.